On August 12, 2024 Halda Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a novel class of cancer therapies called RIPTACTM (Regulated Induced Proximity TArgeting Chimeras) therapeutics, reported that it has raised new financing of $126 million in a Series B extension, including funding from new investors Deep Track Capital, Frazier Life Sciences, RA Capital Management, Vida Ventures, Boxer Capital and Taiho Ventures, as well as existing investors Canaan Partners, Access Biotechnology, Elm Street Ventures, and Connecticut Innovations (Press release, Halda Therapeutics, AUG 12, 2024, View Source [SID1234645756]). Including this financing, Halda has raised $202 million to date from investors.
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Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance two RIPTAC candidates into clinical trials for patients with prostate cancer and breast cancer, initially in the metastatic setting where drug resistance to standard of care is prevalent. Halda’s lead RIPTAC therapeutic, HLD-0915, is expected to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial in the first half of 2025 for the treatment of patients with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The financing will also support the clinical development of a second RIPTAC therapeutic for metastatic breast cancer. In addition, the funding will enable the company to further build its team and to develop additional products using its RIPTAC platform to address other indications with unmet need.
"We are excited to have the support of this leading group of new healthcare investors who share our vision to be a cancer drug innovator. This financing will enable us to bring to patients our oral, selective, and widely applicable cancer cell-killing mechanism that is designed to overcome drug resistance, which is a major shortcoming of many current standard of care cancer treatments," said Kat Kayser-Bricker, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Halda Therapeutics. "Our team of talented scientists has made tremendous progress, from inventing the RIPTAC modality to translating our platform into two promising programs in prostate cancer and breast cancer, with our first drug candidate entering the clinic in the first half of 2025 for mCRPC patients."
The RIPTAC modality, now advancing into clinical trials with this financing, has been designed by Halda as a heterobifunctional molecule that targets two proteins for a novel cancer cell-killing mechanism to address a specific cancer type. RIPTAC therapeutics work by a novel "hold and kill" mechanism, bringing together two proteins – a cancer-specific protein and a protein with essential function – resulting in abrogation of the essential cell function, and subsequently, death of the cancer cells while sparing non-cancer tissue where the cancer-specific protein is absent or minimally expressed.
"Novel mechanisms are desperately needed to address resistance to standard of care therapies across a number of tumor types. RIPTAC therapies offer an ability to selectively kill cancer cells based on differential protein expression in orally bioavailable medicines. This innovation has the potential to treat both advanced cancer patients with heterogeneous resistance adaptations, as well as patients with earlier stages of disease. We look forward to working with Halda scientists and clinicians to deliver novel therapies to improve outcomes for cancer patients," said Joe Cabral, Principal at Frazier Life Sciences.
"The team at Halda is creating a new era for oncology treatment with a groundbreaking modality, RIPTAC therapeutics, including medicines that have the potential to deliver solutions for cancer patients beginning with two of the most prevalent cancer types, prostate cancer and breast cancer. In particular, Halda’s lead RIPTAC candidate, HLD‑0915, offers the potential for a mutation-agnostic small molecule approach in the mCRPC setting to address unmet needs for these prostate cancer patients globally," said Arjun Goyal, MD, Co‑Founder and Managing Director, Vida Ventures.
In conjunction with this financing, Rebecca Luse, Principal at Deep Track Capital, Joe Cabral, Principal at Frazier Life Sciences, Nandita Shangari, PhD, Managing Director at RA Capital Management and Arjun Goyal, MD, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Vida Ventures, will join the Halda Board of Directors.