Swiss Biotech raises €10M to Target Elusive Protein Interactions in Cancer

Inthera Bioscience has raised €9.6M in Series A to complete preclinical phase of its lead cancer program and expand its pipeline.

Inthera Bioscience, located in Zurich, has closed a €9.6M (CHF 10.5M) Series A round led by Merck Ventures and backed by Novo Seeds and BioMedical Ventures, as well as a private investor. Members of Novo Seeds and Merck Ventures have joined the company’s Board of Directors, in which is also Anker Lundemose, CEO of Mission Therapeutics.

Inthera is developing cancer drugs that target protein-protein interactions (PPIs), which have been repeatedly highlighted as major drivers of cancer but are particularly difficult to target. Inthera’s strategy to do so is the creation of rationally-designed molecules that combines hot spot amino acid residues, i.e. those that play a major role in binding, with a non-peptidic backbone.

“Inthera’s technology has the potential to radically change our perspective on the druggability of intracellular PPIs,” says Jasper Bos, VP at Merck Ventures. Thanks to the new funds, the company will be able to complete preclinical studies evaluating such a promising technology in HPV-associated cancers and start including new indications in the pipeline.

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