Pharmaceutical Business review

Mosaic Therapeutics raises $28m from Series A round to advance oncology therapies

It also announced the appointment of former Novartis Oncology SVP Brian Gladsden as CEO.

The firm raised the amount from Syncona Investment Management, and Cambridge Innovation Capital.

Proceeds from the Series A funding round will be used to advance Mosaic’s pipeline of targeted oncology therapies for biomarker-stratified populations, advancing its lead programmes via preclinical development to IND-enabling studies.

Furthermore, the funds will support hiring efforts and in building senior leadership, experimental biology, and computational teams.

Claimed to be reinventing the conventional approach to target and drug discovery, Mosaic leverages advanced computational methods and brings together mining of huge datasets with experimental approaches to identify and develop novel targeted therapies.

Its bespoke association with the Wellcome Sanger Institute offers it access to scientific expertise, infrastructure, and biological assets.

Meanwhile, Brian Gladsden has joined Mosaic as CEO after a 25-year career in biopharmaceuticals, including five years with Bayer and 15 years with Novartis Oncology, where he served as senior vice president and a member of the Worldwide Leadership Team.

Gladsden had several leadership roles, including country CEO, leading cancer therapeutic development and commercial launch across the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Mosaic Therapeutics CEO Brian Gladsden said: “I believe that Mosaic is ideally positioned to resolve the complexity of cancer, to discover and develop targeted therapies that address areas of high unmet need. The people, platform, connection to a world-leading genomics research institute, and strong investor partnerships are truly best in class.

“To receive funding from such high calibre investors is testament to the potential of Mosaic’s technology and multidisciplinary team, as well as the exceptional support provided by the Wellcome Sanger Institute.”

Mosaic is the most recent spin-out company from the Wellcome Sanger Institute.