Arvinas LLC, a New Haven, CT-based private biotechnology company creating a new class of drugs based on targeted protein degradation, closed a $41.6m Series B financing round.
The round was led by RA Capital Management with participation from Canaan Partners, 5AM Ventures, OrbiMed, and New Leaf Venture Partners. In conjunction with the funding, Andrew Levin, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Director, RA Capital Management, Stephen Squinto, Ph.D., Venture Partner, OrbiMed, and Liam Ratcliffe, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Director, New Leaf Venture Partners, joined Arvinas’ Board of Directors.
The company intends to use the funds to advance a pipeline of targeted degraders into the clinic and to continue to strengthen the platform.
Led by Manuel Litchman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Arvinas is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing new small molecules aimed at degrading disease-causing cellular proteins. Based on research conducted at Yale University by Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, Craig Crews, PhD, Arvinas has developed a platform technology to induce the loss of intracellular proteins, Proteolysis-Targeting Chimera (PROTAC). According to the company, the ability of PROTAC-based drugs to induce protein degradation (instead of protein inhibition) offers the advantage of potentially targeting “undruggable” as well as “druggable” elements of the proteome, which expands the ability to create drugs for previously unapproachable targets.
FinSMEs
21/10/2015