Simcha Therapeutics, a US-based cancer therapeutics developer spun out of Yale University, has obtained $25m of series A funding from investors including pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec’s Corporate Venture Fund.
Pharmaceutical firm Pfizer also contributed funding, as did Connecticut Innovations, the strategic venturing arm of Connecticut state, and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital China.
Founded in 2018, Simcha Therapeutics engineers cytokine molecules as the basis for cancer immunotherapies intended to be more effective than existing treatments.
The company’s lead candidate, ST-067, administers a single-agent variant of interleukin-18 (IL-18), a cytokine protein thought to trigger natural killer cells and T-cells into destroying cancerous tumours.
While IL-18 could be effective, a decoy called IL-18BP typically blocks the route to its receptor, allowing tumours to evade confrontation.
Simcha believes it has identified a decoy-resistant form of IL-18, bringing into play inflammatory signals that temper tumour suppression of the immune system.
The approach, slated to commence initial clinical trials in early 2021, extends Yale University research led by Aaron Ring, assistant professor of immunobiology. Simcha now plans to recruit a full executive team in preparation for clinical development.
Ring said: “Cytokines represent a compelling therapeutic. The challenge is that nature did not design them to be anti-cancer therapies; they are signalling molecules, so their activity can be hard to specifically direct.”

Simcha Therapeutics, a US-based cancer therapeutics developer spun out of Yale University, has received $25m of series A funding from investors including pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and WuXi AppTec.

The round also featured venture capital firm Sequoia Capital China and Connecticut Innovations, the strategic venturing arm of the US state of Connecticut, while WuXi AppTec invested through its Corporate Venture Fund.

Founded in 2018, Simcha is engineersing cytokine molecules that will form the basis for cancer immunotherapies. Its lead candidate, ST-067, administers a single-agent variant of interleukin-18 (IL-18), a cytokine protein thought to trigger natural killer cells and T-cells to destroy cancerous tumours.

While IL-18 could be effective, a decoy called IL-18BP typically blocks the route to its receptor, allowing tumours to evade confrontation. Simcha believes it has identified a decoy-resistant form of IL-18.

Simcha’s lead drug candidate is slated to enter initial clinical trials in early 2021 and extends Yale University research led by assistant professor of immunobiology Aaron Ring. It plans to now recruit a full executive team in preparation for the clinical development stage.

Ring said: “At Simcha, we set out to improve on nature’s design by engineering custom-built proteins that can precisely activate and expand populations of crucial immune responders, such as natural killer cells and T cells.

“Too many cancer patients do not respond to the immunotherapies available today. We are hopeful that our approach will provide new options and potential benefits to these patients.”