Tarveda Therapeutics, Inc., formerly Blend Therapeutics, today announced that it has secured $38 million in Series C financing co-led by new investor Novo A/S and existing investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The company also announced the change of its corporate brand to clearly highlight the company’s differentiated approach to treating cancer.
The name Tarveda represents the company’s distinct approach, based on its proprietary Pentarin™ platform and deep knowledge of solid tumor biology, to developing cancer drug conjugates that possess the attributes required to successfully treat solid tumor cancers. Pentarins are miniaturized biologic drug conjugates designed to target, penetrate and treat solid tumors while overcoming certain key limitations seen with antibody drug conjugates and other, larger cancer drugs.
“We are changing the corporate brand to Tarveda to mark our focus on a promising pipeline of Pentarins. Pentarins have demonstrated potential for the treatment of a broad range of solid tumors including neuroendocrine and small cell lung cancers,” said Drew Fromkin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tarveda Therapeutics. “This financing will accelerate our progress in advancing Pentarin candidates into the clinic to treat cancer patients with solid tumors where large unmet needs remain. We are pleased that we have attracted an outstanding syndicate of life sciences investors with strong financial and sector experience to assist Tarveda in becoming a leading innovator of cancer therapies during this exciting time for our Company.”
Proceeds from the Series C financing will be used to advance a pipeline of Pentarins that Tarveda is developing for a range of solid tumor targets. In particular, the funding will support the advancement of Tarveda’s lead drug candidate, PEN-221, into Phase 1 clinical studies in mid-2016. PEN-221 is designed to target the somatostatin receptor for treatment of patients with neuroendocrine cancers including small cell lung cancer. With the availability of diagnostic tools to identify patients with over-expression of the somatostatin receptor in their tumors, Tarveda is employing a targeted strategy for clinical development by enrolling patients in the Phase 1 study who have been identified as most likely to benefit from treatment with PEN-221.