Circle Pharma, a spinout of UCSF and UC Santa Cruz, has collected series B funding from investors including another UC campus, Berkeley.
Circle Pharma, a US-based oncology therapeutics spinout of University of California (UC), San Francisco and Santa Cruz, secured $45m on Tuesday in a series B round backed by UC Berkeley’s investment vehicle, Berkeley Catalyst Fund.
Healthcare-focused venture capital fund Column Group led the round, which also included pharmaceutical firm ShangPharma, Nextech Invest and LifeForce Capital.
Circle is developing cancer drugs that are formed around strings of amino acids called peptides which make up structures called macrocycles. It represents a type of therapeutic that has the potential to treat disease targets that have hitherto been regarded as undruggable.
The company has created a computational algorithm prediction system that helps unlock the drug-like effects of macrocycles. It will use the series B funds to support the development of inhibitors of the cyclin A and cyclin E protein families.
Circle began operations when pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and Mission Bay Capital supplied an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2014. ShangPharma added an undisclosed sum to the round in mid-2016.
Mission Bay led a $4.5m series A round for the company in November 2016 that included ShangPharma subsidiary ShangPharma Investment Group, Pfizer and various angel investors.
The $2m second tranche of the series A came five months later and featured Elements Partners, LifeForce Capital, Whitesun Healthcare Ventures and WI Harper Group.
David Earp, president and chief executive of Circle, said: “We are delighted to have these premier life science investors supporting our series B financing.
“With this strong backing, we will expand our team, drive our cyclin-targeted programs towards the clinic, and apply our macrocycle platform to additional intractable targets.”
Peter Svennilson from Column Group and Thilo Schroeder of Nextech Invest have both joined Circle’s board of directors, which already included Walter Moos, CEO of ShangPharma Innovation. The company has also appointed John Josey as chairman.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
