Can new drugs punch holes in can­cer's pro­tec­tive bar­ri­er? For Parthenon Ther­a­peu­tics, that's the $65M ques­tion

Imag­ine tak­ing an ice pick to the pro­tec­tive bar­ri­er that sur­rounds can­cer cells. That’s es­sen­tial­ly what Parthenon Ther­a­peu­tics is try­ing to do — and now a hand­ful of in­vestors in­clud­ing Pfiz­er’s ven­ture arm are putting up $65 mil­lion to see it through.

“For at least 50% of tu­mors out there, can­cer ther­a­pies or can­cer fight­ing cells are un­able to pen­e­trate the tu­mor be­cause of a phys­i­cal bar­ri­er,” CEO Lau­rent Au­doly told End­points News. “When we did our re­search, we quick­ly re­al­ized that this was a wide open op­por­tu­ni­ty.”

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