The round was led by major family and biotech investors, including Tim Disney, the Duke of Bedford, Alexandria Venture Investments, and other undisclosed private investors.
The company intends to use the funds to advance its portfolio of specific and selective small molecules that initially target RNA exon skipping, which drives a set of 50+ diseases that include both broad-based neurological conditions and previously “undruggable” oncogenes in cancer.
Skyhawk leverages its proprietary technology which enables the rational design of small molecules that target specific binding pocket regions on RNA, using both sequence and structural specificity, at particular moments in the RNA splicing process, to initially target diseases driven by a type of RNA mis-splicing called “exon skipping,” where key regions on the RNA are left out during the RNA splicing process.
Skyhawk founders and founding board of directors include:
– William Haney, Skyhawk co-founder and executive chairman of the Skyhawk board of directors, and co-founder and CEO of Dragonfly Therapeutics.
– Kathleen McCarthy, Skyhawk co-founder and CEO.
– Kevin Koch, Skyhawk founding board member, venture partner with OrbiMed Advisors, LLC and President and CEO of Edgewise Therapeutics.
– Andrew Boyd, Skyhawk founding board member and Fidelity Head of Global Equity Capital Markets.
– Andrew Bedford, Skyhawk founding board member, technology investor and Duke of Bedford, England.
FinSMEs
24/01/2018