NEW YORK – Scorpion Therapeutics on Tuesday said it has raised $150 million in Series C financing, which it will use to advance several precision cancer drugs in its pipeline.
The funding round was led by Frazier Life Sciences and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other participants included Willet Advisors, Omega Funds, Vida Ventures, Atlas Venture, Abingworth, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Boxer Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Surveyor Capital, Invus, Wellington Management, funds managed by Nextech Invest, OrbiMed, Logos Capital, Woodline Partners, and Casdin Capital.
Concurrent with the financing, Shelley Chu, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, will become an investor board member and Albert Cha, managing partner at Frazier Life Sciences, will join Scorpion's board as an observer.
Boston-based Scorpion will use the proceeds to advance its therapeutic pipeline, including its lead candidate, the PI3Kα inhibitor STX-478. That drug is currently undergoing testing in a Phase I/II trial, initially in patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer to establish a dose and then in patients with various solid tumors bearing PI3Kα mutations.
The funds will also support development of Scorpion's two EGFR inhibitor programs, including the clinical-stage candidate STX-721 and the preclinical asset STX-241. Last year, Scorpion began a Phase I/II clinical trial of STX-721 in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors harbor EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations.
Scorpion is codeveloping these EGFR-targeted therapies with French pharma company Pierre Fabre. Under that deal, Scorpion holds rights to STX-721 and STX-241 in the US, Canada, and Japan, while Pierre Fabre has commercialization rights in all other territories, including in Europe and China.
Scorpion launched in 2020 with $108 million in Series A financing. In 2021, the firm raised another $162 million in a Series B funding round.