On September 6, 2022 Elephas Biosciences Corporation (Elephas), a private company, reported that it has raised $41.5 million in Series B funding (Press release, Elephas Biosciences, SEP 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234619100]). ARCH Venture Partners led the round, and were joined by new investors, Moore Strategic Ventures and Tao Capital Partners . Continuing investments were made by Northpond Ventures, Sands Capital, and WARF Ventures. Prior investments include $20 million from the Series A and $8 million from the founder and early seed investors.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
Elephas is developing an oncology diagnostics platform to predict response to immunotherapy. The platform utilizes live fragments from a patient biopsy and treats those fragments with potential therapies and combinations. The latest advances in cancer biology combined with multi-modal imaging are used to assess how patients will respond before beginning treatment.
Elephas is launching two human clinical trials on the platform in the next quarter and plans to share initial clinical data in 2023. The company also plans to make the platform available to biopharma researchers next year. Oncology drugs remain the largest pharmaceutical therapeutic area, with immunotherapies emerging in the last decade as effective and powerful tools in the fight against cancer.
"Our mission at Elephas is to improve care for cancer patients," stated Maneesh Arora, founder and CEO of Elephas. "We are grateful for the support of these world-class venture firms who believe in what we are doing and are committed to helping us get there."
"Technology that will allow patients to receive the most effective therapy quickly, before time and resources are spent on ineffective options, will change the game for those diagnosed with cancer," ARCH Venture Partners’ Paul Berns added. "We are excited to partner with the company to bring this novel solution to patients."
XMS Capital Partners acted as financial advisor to the company.
ARCH Venture Partners’ Paul Berns will join the Elephas board of directors and ARCH’s Keith Crandell will be joining as a board observer. This follows the recent appointment by the company of Steven Galson, the former director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at FDA, as independent director.