Startups

Sutro raises $85.4 million in Series E round to advance blood cancer, solid tumor drugs

Latest round of venture capital funding brings total amount raised to $175 million since 2003.

A drugmaker in the San Francisco Bay Area has raised a venture capital financing round to advance its investigational drugs for liquid and solid tumors.

South San Francisco, California-based Sutro Biopharma said Thursday that it had secured a Series E funding round worth $85.4 million to develop its drug candidates. The candidates, both antibody-drug conjugates, are STRO-001, in Phase I testing for lymphoma and multiple myeloma, and STR-002, which the company plans to enter into trials for ovarian and endometrial cancer next year. The company plans to use the money to fund development of other early-stage programs as well.

Samsara BioCapital and Surveyor Capital led the round. Samsara BioCapital, which is based in Palo Alto, California, and incorporated in Delaware, launched its $310 million venture fund last year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Other funds participating in the Sutro financing include Alta Partners, Amgen Ventures, Celgene, Lilly Ventures, Skyline Ventures and SV Health Investors. First-time investors include Eventide, Nexthera Capital, Vida Ventures and funds managed by Tekla Capital Management, while Merck & Co. made an investment and committed future investment as well. The latest round brings the total amount of funding raised to $175 million since 2003.

The company’s aforementioned Phase I study, which opened in February, is enrolling up to 220 patients with advanced B-cell blood cancers, namely myeloma and several histologies of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, including follicular lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, according to ClinicalTrials.gov.

STRO-001 targets the CD74 antigen. Privately held Immunomedics, based in Morris Plains, New Jersey, is also developing a CD74-targeting monoclonal antibody, albeit it in autoimmune diseases. It had been developing the drug for blood cancers early on, but none of those protocols have been active since at least three years ago, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. As an antibody-drug conjugate, STRO-001 uses its antigen targeting to deliver a cytotoxic compound linked to the antibody to tumor cells.

Photo: Devrimb, Getty Images

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