Syndax Pharma Snags $6M Debt Deal

Syndax Pharmaceuticals, a Waltham, MA-based developer of treatments for cancer, has raised $6 million of a planned $7 million in a round of convertible debt financing, Joanna Horobin, the company’s CEO, confirmed. The information first appeared online in an SEC filing. The round included investments from all of the firm’s previous backers, which include San Diego venture firms Domain Associates, Avalon Ventures, and Forward Ventures as well as MPM Capital, of Boston and South San Francisco, and Pappas Ventures in Durham, NC. The funding will support the firm’s Phase II, double-blind, randomized clinical trial of the its drug, entinostat, in combination with the hormone therapy exemestane (Aromasin) for treating breast cancer, Horobin said. Syndax’s drug is intended to reprogram tumor cells to be receptive to hormone therapies.

Author: Ryan McBride

Ryan is an award-winning business journalist who contributes to our life sciences and technology coverage. He was previously a staff writer for Mass High Tech, a Boston business and technology newspaper, where he and his colleagues won a national business journalism award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2008. In recent years, he has made regular TV appearances on New England Cable News. Prior to MHT, Ryan covered the life sciences, technology, and energy sectors for Providence Business News. He graduated with honors from the University of Rhode Island in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in communications. When he’s not chasing down news, Ryan enjoys mountain biking and skiing in his home state of Vermont.