Prelude Therapeutics, a Wilmington, Del.-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, secured $60m in Series B financing.
The round, which brought total funding to date to $95m, was co-led by existing institutional investors, including OrbiMed Advisors LLC.
Led by Kris Vaddi, PhD, Founder and CEO, and David Mauro, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, Prelude Therapeutics focuses on the discovery and development of small molecule drugs that target key drivers of cancer cell growth, survival and resistance.
Launched in July 2016, the company has made rapid progress in its first discovery program targeting Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), a member of the arginine methyltransferase family. PRMT5 plays an important role in several cellular processes that drive cancer cell proliferation, cell cycle progression and resistance to apoptosis in hematological malignancies and solid tumors.
Prelude intends to use the funds to:
– advance its proprietary PRMT5 inhibitor, PRT543, which is in a parallel dose escalation Phase 1 clinical trial for solid tumors, myeloid malignancies and lymphomas,
– advance additional differentiated compounds from the PRMT5 program, and
– strengthen discovery, preclinical and clinical development infrastructure to support a rapidly advancing pipeline beyond PRMT5.
Prelude has established several drug discovery programs and compounds from these early-stage programs are also expected to enter preclinical development in the second half of 2019 with a potential IND-filing in 2020.
FinSMEs
12/06/2019