Apoptos reports a $28 million milestone-driven, two-tranche Series A financing. Major investors include Venrock, Arch Venture Partners, OrbiMed Advisors, and Advanced Technology Ventures.
The firm says that the money will take it through to 2010. It will be used to advance Apoptos’ small molecules directed at inducing tumor cell apoptosis. Apoptos says that it has licensed two drug discovery technologies, both of which invoke unique mechanisms of action.
The first program seeks to develop a drug that specifically and directly activates executioner enzymes, the consequence of which is tumor cell death. The second program will focus on a compound that binds to and alters the normal biological behavior of apoptosis protector proteins, also leading to cancer cell apoptosis.