NEW YORK – InxMed on Thursday completed a $50 million Series B funding round, led by CS Capital.
Other participants in the round included AIHC Fund, Growth Fund, Hosencare Fund, and existing investor Ennovation Venture.
InxMed, based in Nanjing, China, will use the funding to advance clinical trials of its lead candidate IN10018, a FAK inhibitor being studied in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, NRAS-mutant melanoma, and KRAS-mutant solid tumors. The company hopes to initiate pivotal trials of IN10018 this year and advance its other therapeutic candidates into the clinic in the US and China.
The company began a Phase Ib study of IN10018 in NRAS-mutant metastatic melanoma in the US in 2020. The same year, InxMed published research showing that IN10018 could overcome resistance to KRAS G12C inhibition and that the drug had synergistic benefits with KRAS G12C inhibitors in cell-based and patient-derived xenograft models.
The US Food and Drug Administration last year granted IN10018 fast-track designation as a treatment for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The company is currently studying the drug in this setting in a Phase I/II trial. InxMed's other pipeline candidates include drugs targeting CAF mutations and TAM mutations in solid tumors, along with an agent targeting epigenetic regulation.
"Our strategy is targeting the ecosystem fostered by tumor cells including tumor microenvironment to develop effective therapeutic regimens to combat or even cure cancer," InxMed CEO Zaiqi Wang said in a statement. "We have built robust pipelines with different, yet complementary mechanisms of action." He added that InxMed is also exploring global partnerships "to maximize the value" of IN10018 and its other drug development programs.
In 2020, InxMed raised RMB 30 million ($19 million) in a Series A financing round.