Kronos Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical focused on discovery and development of novel cancer therapeutics using a precision medicine strategy that targets dysregulated transcription. Its lead assets include a spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor recently acquired from Gilead and KB-0742, a differentiated CDK9 inhibitor. The company plans to potentially advance the SYK inhibitor into a registrational trial in 2021 and to move KB-0742 into a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for MYC-amplified solid tumors. Kronos also intends to continue investing in its product discovery engine to drive multiple oncology programs targeting dysregulated transcription factors. To support these programs, the company announced a private financing of approximately $155 million in convertible notes, with $148 million received to date and the remaining $7 million expected by mid-September. Jefferies acted as the sole placement agent for the financing. Kronos Bio leverages a Small Molecule Microarray (SMM) platform, built on more than a decade of research by founder Angela Koehler at MIT, to discover modulators and degraders of historically undruggable targets. SMM enables rapid, high-throughput screens in physiologically relevant contexts and can identify compounds that bind targets directly or interfere with protein activity at nanomolar potency. The platform uncovers hits that act via multiple mechanisms, including disruption of protein–protein or protein–DNA interactions and indirect modulation by binding cofactors or complex members. Kronos combines SMM with capabilities in targeted protein degradation and cancer biology to pursue first-in-class therapies against central oncogenic drivers. The company plans to advance two preclinical programs derived from SMM hits, accelerate its research, and expand its team in the Boston and San Francisco areas. Financially, Kronos has just closed a $105 million Series A to support these activities. Kronos Bio leverages a small molecule microarray (SMM) platform and biological assay expertise to screen chemical libraries against challenging targets in a more physiologically relevant context. The company’s approach is aimed at discovering unique ligands that can be used to generate novel modulators or degraders of difficult targets such as transcription factors. Kronos is advancing two preclinical programs derived from SMM hits, targeting the MYC family of transcription factors and the Androgen Receptor (AR), including AR splice variants. The MYC programs have shown activity in multiple MYC-driven cancer models, and AR hit series have reduced viability and AR expression in treatment-resistant cell lines. Kronos is positioning to translate academic research into therapeutic leads with a commercial drug-development team and recently completed financing to support that work.

Total raised

$278M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Convertible Note

Latest activity

Aug 2020