Participated · Series B · Dec 2022

Alpha-9 Theranostics is a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing differentiated and highly targeted radiopharmaceuticals to treat people living with cancer. The company applies proprietary technologies and expertise in peptide and small-molecule modification to engineer bespoke radiopharmaceuticals optimized to selectively deliver radiation to tumor sites while minimizing off-target effects. Alpha-9 is advancing a pipeline of novel radiopharmaceuticals with a systematic approach to molecule design that offers potential to expand into several validated oncology targets. Founded in 2019 by researchers from BC Cancer and the University of British Columbia, the team has deep expertise in radiopharmaceutical design. The company recently raised $75M in a Series B financing to support its development activities. Alpha-9 plans to use the proceeds to advance five programs into the clinic over the next two years while expanding its early-stage programs. Alpha-9 Theranostics is a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing imaging and therapeutic molecules for solid and hematologic malignancies. The company uses proprietary technology to create differentiated imaging and therapeutic molecules intended to extend patients’ lives with favorable safety profiles. Alpha-9 was founded by researchers from the University of British Columbia and BC Cancer with the goal of improving outcomes for patients affected by metastatic cancers. The company plans to advance a portfolio of novel radiotherapeutics and diagnostics and move multiple programs into clinical trials. In April 2021 Alpha-9 announced an $11 million Series A financing to support advancement of its programs.

Participated · Series C · Feb 2022

Koneksa has built a software suite that ingests sensor data from devices — from portable spirometers to iPhones and Apple Watches — and uses algorithms to extract clinically useful signals and organize them for drug companies and trial sites. The company aims to convert analog clinical scales into digital, more granular measures (for example quantifying Parkinson’s tremors via phone sensors) and has run studies showing at-home measures can correlate with clinic tests. Koneksa has supported clinical trials at over 700 sites and published internal studies such as a 12-patient asthma spirometer comparison and a 66-patient head-and-neck cancer activity study. Its current focus is clinical validation of digital biomarkers to meet the evidentiary standards of leading drug companies and to enable regulatory use. Planned product initiatives include Koneksa-owned and collaborator studies to build evidence and a "self-service" platform that lets partners combine and license integrated device-data dashboards. Financially, the company had previously raised roughly $4M in seed/Series A and $16M in a Series B and is announcing a $45M Series C to fund validation and the platform launch. Koneksa develops a patient-centric digital biomarker platform for drug development, delivered via a SaaS platform and mobile application. The platform integrates wearables, sensors and other patient-facing technologies to capture, monitor and analyze patient-generated data collected at home and remotely. Koneksa provides its own mobile assessments and can work with a variety of existing wearable sensors to enable a broad array of data inputs. The company has partnered with pharmaceutical and biotech firms to develop and implement digital biomarkers across therapeutic areas including neuroscience, respiratory, rare diseases and oncology. Launched in 2015 and led by CEO Chris Benko, Koneksa recently closed a $16M Series B to support R&D, validation of digital endpoints, platform advancement, strategic partnerships and geographic expansion.

Participated · Series C · Jun 2021

Lyndra Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing long-acting oral therapies using its LYNX drug delivery platform. The LYNX platform creates weekly oral medicines enabled by over 50 patented innovations and is licensed exclusively from the Bob Langer and Gio Traverso laboratories at MIT. Lyndra’s lead product candidate is oral weekly risperidone (LYN-005), which is near completion of a pivotal Phase 3 study, and the company is also advancing weekly formulations of dapagliflozin (LYN-045) and aripiprazole (LYN-006). Proceeds from recent financings are intended to support completion of the risperidone Phase 3 trials and continued development of the pipeline of oral weekly therapies. Since its founding, Lyndra has received product funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NIH, AbbVie, and Gilead Sciences. The company is headquartered in Watertown, MA and operates a GMP manufacturing facility in Lexington, MA. Lyndra Therapeutics develops long-acting oral therapies using its proprietary LYNX drug delivery platform. Its lead candidate, LYN-005 (oral weekly risperidone), has dosed the first participant in a pivotal trial for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. The LYNX platform is designed to deliver a week’s worth of medication in a single oral capsule. The company recently raised capital as part of a larger offering and previously completed a $60.5 million Series C in 2021. Financial updates include a $20.3 million placement from investors as part of the current offering. Lyndra Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering an oral ultra-long-acting, extended-release capsule designed to reside in the stomach and provide linear drug release for a week or longer. Its lead candidate, LYN-005, is a once-weekly oral risperidone formulation that showed encouraging Phase 2 proof-of-concept data indicating a more consistent pharmacokinetic profile and reduced dosing frequency. The company plans to advance LYN-005 into pivotal trials and prepare for U.S. commercialization, with an expected pivotal start later this year and a launch a few years thereafter. Lyndra is expanding its CNS pipeline assets and actively evaluating high-value partnerships across a broad range of disease states. The platform targets areas where non-adherence is a major driver of outcomes, including schizophrenia, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and opioid use disorder. Lyndra has collaborations and funding engagements including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the NIH, and has raised almost $250 million in total financing inclusive of the most recent round. Lyndra Therapeutics is developing once-monthly oral dosage forms, including a combination contraceptive designed to deliver continuous estrogen and progestin. Its core technology is a star-shaped formulation contained inside a capsule that opens in the stomach, releases active pharmaceutical ingredients consistently for up to a week or longer, and then exits via the gastrointestinal tract. The current program is focused on demonstrating once-monthly gastric residence and building a once-monthly oral combination therapy. Preclinical evaluation will be conducted in collaboration with Routes2Results through additional funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation awarded Lyndra a $13M grant for the contraceptive program and also awarded a separate grant for a long-acting malaria drug. The foundation invested in Lyndra’s recent Series B; those Series B proceeds will be used for Phase II clinical trials, expansion of the Phase I pipeline, and manufacturing scale-up. Lyndra is led by CEO and co-founder Amy Schulman and is based in Watertown, MA. Lyndra Therapeutics develops orally administered ultra-long-acting, sustained-release therapies designed to deliver steady-state release of one or more drugs for up to a week or longer while temporarily residing in the stomach. Its platform uses a star-shaped formulation inside a capsule that opens in the stomach, releases active pharmaceutical ingredients consistently over time, and then exits the gastrointestinal tract safely. The company aims to replace daily dosing with weekly or monthly pills to improve medication adherence, reduce side effects, and lower healthcare costs. To date the dosage form has been safely administered in 50 subjects during Phase I clinical trials in Australia, and Lyndra received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for related intellectual property. Lyndra is moving toward submitting an IND for a long-acting schizophrenia pill in 2019 and anticipates starting a Phase II clinical trial in 2020 while advancing other candidates through Phase I–III. The company recently raised new financing to support clinical development and manufacturing scale-up.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2021

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.

Led · Series C · Mar 2021

Variantyx develops proprietary, clinically-accredited whole genome analysis platforms for genetic disorders, reproductive health, and precision oncology. The company reports sequencing tens of thousands of genomes to date. It has seen a rapid increase in test volumes in Q1 2024 and is expanding its market share as demand shifts from panel and exome testing to whole genome testing. Variantyx says it maintains strong unit economics while aiming to provide genome-based care to a larger number of patients. The company plans ongoing innovation of new genome analysis technologies and will use new capital for technological and commercial expansion. Variantyx is based in Framingham, Mass., and has attracted more than $125 million in total investment to date. Variantyx develops a proprietary whole-genome analysis platform that provides advanced genomic testing for rare genetic disorders, reproductive health, and precision oncology. Its precision oncology solution combines multiple genomic technologies to identify tumor-specific genetic alterations to help predict therapy response, optimize management, and provide prognostic and clinical-trial information. The company says its platform offers unmatched diagnostic capabilities and improved personalized treatment recommendations. Variantyx is targeting growth in North America and Europe, which it cites as key regions for precision medicine spending. Management intends to scale commercial efforts to take advantage of the growing global precision medicine market. The company recently strengthened its capital position through a debt financing to support that growth. Variantyx is a technology-driven precision medicine company based in Framingham, Mass., providing advanced genomic testing for rare genetic disorders, reproductive health, and precision oncology. The company has developed proprietary whole genome analysis platforms that enable clinicians and patients to understand a person’s genetic makeup. These platforms aim to improve diagnostic capabilities and support personalized treatment recommendations. Led by CEO Haim Neerman, Variantyx provides solutions across diagnostics and oncology markets. The company raised $41.5M in a Series C-2 to accelerate growth and bring newly developed solutions to market. Variantyx plans to focus the investment on expanding its precision oncology offerings while scaling across its other target markets. Variantyx provides Genomic Unity, a WGS-based single-method testing program that identifies multiple variant types from a single patient sample and issues a unified clinical report. The company’s WGS methodology is used to diagnose rare inherited and neurological disorders and is being positioned as a first-line test to reduce the diagnostic odyssey. Variantyx has also announced a WGS-based prenatal test for high-risk pregnancies with ultrasound anomalies. The company recently secured $20M in Series C funding to extend its technology into comprehensive tumor diagnostic solutions and to expand sales. Management says the funding will enable faster diagnosis and implementation of personalized treatment plans for cancer patients. Variantyx operates as a high-complexity hereditary disease testing laboratory under CLIA/CAP.