Volastra Therapeutics is a New York-based clinical-stage drug discovery company focused on exploiting chromosomal instability (CIN) to treat cancer. The company in-licensed Amgen’s sovilnesib (AMG650), an oral, first-in-class small-molecule KIF18A inhibitor, receiving an exclusive worldwide license (ex-China) to develop and commercialize the drug. Sovilnesib is in Phase 1 for platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer and other solid tumors with TP53 mutations, and has FDA fast-track designation for platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Volastra also develops its own KIF18A inhibitor, VLS-1488, and plans to advance clinical development of both sovilnesib and VLS-1488 in 2023. In parallel with the in-license, the company closed a $60 million Series A financing. Volastra has a multi-year collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb worth up to $1.1 billion for CIN-based synthetic lethality discovery and a partnership with Microsoft to develop AI for high-throughput histopathological identification of CIN. Volastra Therapeutics develops novel therapies and discovery tools aimed at halting or preventing cancer metastasis by exploiting insights into chromosomal instability (CIN). The company uses proprietary computational and experimental approaches and a technology suite to bulk-measure and exploit vulnerabilities in chromosomally unstable cancer cells. The recent financing will support further build-out of that technology platform and advance drug discovery programs to block metastasis. Volastra has announced collaborations with Dewpoint Therapeutics to discover molecules that block immuno-suppressive signaling in CIN-high tumors and with Microsoft to develop AI algorithms to detect and predict metastatic potential in tissue samples. The company was co-founded by Lewis Cantley, Olivier Elemento and Samuel Bakhoum, and is led by CEO Charles Hugh-Jones. Volastra is based in West Harlem, N.Y. Volastra Therapeutics is focused on developing therapies specifically for metastatic cancers by targeting pathways related to chromosomal instability. The company leverages pioneering science from the Cantley and Elemento labs at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Bakhoum lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Volastra uses an extensive library of organoids derived from metastatic cancer samples to validate targets, advance first-in-class clinical candidates, and identify biomarkers to stratify patients. The team aims to shift the treatment paradigm for advanced disease, where metastasis drives the majority of cancer deaths. Volastra is rapidly advancing multiple programs toward the clinic and operates out of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS @ NYC. The company was founded by Drs. Lewis Cantley, Samuel Bakhoum, and Olivier Elemento and is led by an experienced board including Executive Chair Sandra Peterson.

Total raised

$104M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Mar 2023