Nereus Raises $20M for Cancer Study

San Diego’s Nereus Pharmaceuticals says it has secured as much as $20 million in commitments for additional funding from its existing investors to fund a mid-stage trial of a drug candidate for treating non-small cell lung cancer. The company, which specializes in developing drugs from marine microbes, says it has enrolled 170 patients in its study of NPI-2358 (plinabulin). As Luke reported last year, Nereus previously raised $125 million. Investors are HBM BioVentures, Alta Partners, Forward Ventures, Gimv, Advent International, Pacific Venture Group, Roche Venture Fund, and Astellas Venture Management.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.