Rappta Therapeutics, a Helsinki, Finland-based company focused on developing first-in-class anti-cancer drugs activating protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), closed a €9m Series A financing.
The round was co-led by Novartis Venture Fund and Novo Holdings with participation from Advent Life Sciences and a family office. The company also received funding from Business Finland, the Finnish innovation funding organization.
PP2A is a critical enzyme regulating protein de-phosphorylation and a key tumor suppressor which to date has been very difficult to target pharmaceutically.
A private biotech with operations in Finland and the US, Rappta Therapeutics is developing anti-cancer drugs activating protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), a critical enzyme regulating protein de-phosphorylation and tumor growth.
Rappta’s scientific team, led by CSO and co-founder, Professor Goutham Narla, Division Chief of Genetic Medicine at the University of Michigan, and Mikko Mannerkoski, CEO, represents world-leading expertise in PP2A. The scientific team, who has published seminal papers on the structural, functional, and biological mechanisms of PP2A inactivation in human cancer, will be supported by the Scientific Advisory Board led by Dr. William Hahn, a Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and the Chief Scientific Officer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Beat Steffen from NVF, Jeroen Bakker from Novo Seeds, and Raj Parekh from Advent Life Sciences, will join Mannerkoski and Narla on the Board of Directors with Beat Steffen serving as the chairperson.
FinSMEs
13/10/2020