Ideaya Biosciences, Inc., a South San Francisco, and La Jolla, Ca.-based biotechnology company, closed $46m Series A funding.
Backers included 5AM Ventures (5AM), Canaan Partners (Canaan), Celgene, WuXi Healthcare Ventures (WuXi), Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research, and Alexandria Real Estate. In conjunction with the financing, Tim Shannon, M.D., General Partner at Canaan, joined the Ideaya’s Board of Directors, while Robert Hershberg, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Celgene, and Edward Hu, M.B.A., Founding Partner at WuXi Healthcare Ventures, joined as Board Observers.
Led by Yujiro S. Hata, M.B.A, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer; Jeffrey Hager, Ph.D., co-founder and Senior Vice President and Head of Biology; and Michael Dillon, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Head of Drug Discovery, Ideaya focuses on the discovery and development of personalized synthetic lethality medicines targeting DNA damage and repair and immuno-oncology therapies targeting the tumor microenvironment.
The company will focus on novel synthetic lethal interactions for genetically defined patient populations, exploiting inherent tumor susceptibilities en-route to discovery and development of small-molecule agents to treat major human cancers. Another area of focus will be to exploit the potential of modulating DNA repair to augment response to immunotherapy. In addition, drug discovery programs will target pathways known to produce an immune suppressed tumor microenvironment, enabling tumors to escape recognition by the host immune system.
FinSMEs
03/05/2016