Dallas—Peloton Therapeutics, which is developing small molecule drugs to treat cancer, announced Wednesday that it has raised $150 million in a Series E funding round.
The new financing was led by RA Capital Management and was joined by new investors, including Eventide Asset Management, Biotechnology Value Fund, OrbiMed, EcoR1 Capital, Vida Ventures, Curative Ventures, and Driehaus Capital Management.
Peloton, which was founded in 2010, has been focused on targeting hypoxia-inducible factor-2a, or HIF-2a, in renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. This protein regulates the body’s response to diminished oxygen. But in some cases, this mechanism can be hijacked to drive disease, including kidney cancer.
Pelton’s lead therapeutic candidate, PT2977, was developed to block HIF-2a, which the company says was previously thought to be untreatable with small molecule drugs. The new cash will fund a Phase 3 clinical trial testing the drug, the company said in the prepared statement.
The biotech is also seeking to develop this drug candidate as a treatment for Von Hippel-Lindau disease, a familial cancer syndrome for which there are currently no approved drugs, Derek DiRocco, principal of RA Capital Management, said in the release.
Earlier investors such as The Column Group, Nextech Invest, Topspin Fund, Tichenor Ventures, and Foresite Capital Management also participated in the Series E financing.
Peloton raised a $52.4 million in Series D financing and received an $11 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence, or SPORE, grant from the National Cancer Institute, both in 2016.
