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news.Tioma Therapeutics, a venture-stage biopharmaceutical firm focused on the development of anti-CD47 antibodies to treat solid and hematologic cancers, has raised $86m in Series A venture financing.
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The financing was co-led by RiverVest Venture Partners, Novo Ventures, Roche Venture Fund and GlaxoSmithKline’s corporate venture capital arm S.R. One.
Tioma will use the proceeds from the financing to further develop its antibody portfolio, including its lead drug candidate, an anti-CD47 immune checkpoint inhibitor, through advanced proof-of-concept in human clinical trials.
The company research laboratories in St. Louis and a corporate office in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Tioma generated a portfolio of anti-CD47 antibodies that have the potential to surmount several checkpoints by which cancer evades the immune system.
The company said the existing approved immuno-oncology therapies have been effective in a subset of patients despite generating only the adaptive immune response.
Anti-CD47 antibodies have the potential to encourage coordination by the innate and adaptive immune systems with both acting in concert to attack tumors, Tioma added.
Tioma Therapeutics president and CEO John Donovan said: “We’re pleased by the degree of investor interest in this financing and thrilled to have enabled the robust advancement of our therapeutic antibodies well into clinical development.
“We’re particularly excited by the prospect of using these compounds in combination with other therapeutic agents, such as PD-L1/PD-1 inhibitors. We believe we have the ability to meaningfully improve outcomes for patients suffering from a variety of debilitating cancers.”