Clinical-stage biotechnology company Volastra Therapeutics raised USD 60 million in a Series A funding round led by Polaris Partners and ARCH venture partners, Eli Lilly and Company, with participation from Droia Ventures and Catalio Capital Management among others. 

The company also announced that it obtained the in-license to Amgen’s sovilnesib (AMG650). Under the terms of the licensing agreement, the company has been granted global rights (excluding China) to develop and market sovilnesib, in exchange for a combination of cash and equity upfront payment, along with future milestone payments and royalties to Amgen. The drug is currently undergoing Phase I trials as a potential treatment for platinum-resistant serous ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and other solid tumors that have TP53 mutations. 

The funds raised will be used toward the clinical development of Amgen’s sovilnesib (AMG650), a small molecular KIF18A orally-administered inhibitor, and also toward furthering research programs aimed at treating cancers that are chromosomally unstable. 

Additionally, the company entered a multi-year partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb worth USD 1.1 billion to employ chromosomal instability (CIN)-based synthetic lethality methods in drug discovery. Volastra has also collaborated with Microsoft to create AI technologies for the identification of CIN through histopathological screening.

New York-based clinical-stage drug discovery company Volastra Therapeutics focuses on developing new approaches for cancer treatments by targeting a tumor vulnerability known as CIN as a way to selectively kill cancer cells while sparing normal cells. Its proprietary CINtech platform identifies and targets specific genetic and cellular pathways involved in cancer cell growth and survival which is used to develop a pipeline of synthetic lethality-based solutions, a process in which cancer cells with a specific genetic mutation are selectively killed while healthy cells remain unharmed.