Taking a fresh approach with a metabolic pathway that spurs cancer growth, spanking-new Cambridge cancer drug startup Raze Therapeutics has just raised a $24 million Series A.
The company’s already got strong venture and big pharma backing – this early round includes Atlas Ventures, MPM Capital Management, MS Ventures, Partners Innovation Fund, Astellas Venture Management and Novartis.
Notably, the company’s acting CEO is Jason Rhodes, who stepped down as president of stock darling Epizyme just last month to join Atlas. Read Xconomy’s conversation with Rhodes here. Ben Fidler writes:
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The central idea behind Raze is to home in on targets in a set of biological pathways called “one carbon metabolism,” that help tumors grow. These pathways, Rhodes says, provide the tumors with substances needed to help them bulk up, cause damage, and spread.
“If you can inhibit those pathways, you can shut down this whole biomass process,” Rhodes says. “It stops tumors from growing and we believe it also actually then kills those tumor cells.”
Rhodes says these targets are “selectively turned on” in tumor cells, meaning blocking them specifically could spare healthy tissues. Initially, Raze aims to develop small-molecule drugs that bind to specific metabolic enzymes in these pathways. So far, the company has delivered encouraging results from tests in petri dishes—showing, essentially, that tumors suffer if you mess with targets in these pathways, and that some targets on these pathways could be drugged with certain chemicals. That was what led Atlas and others to turn the company from a seed project to a startup.
