RA Capital jumps on board diabetes biotech, pitching in on $160M Series D
A small California biotech is back with more cash and a new big name VC to work with.
Carmot Therapeutics reported a Series D financing worth $160 million Tuesday morning, which the biotech said will be used to push forward and complete clinical studies and advance pre-clinical programs.
Existing backer Column Group led the financing and was joined by a “significant investment” from new investor RA Capital Management, who will hold a board observer seat at the company. Additional funders include Deep Track Capital, Willett Advisors, Horizons Ventures and “other institutional investors.”
As part of the financing, Phase I and II clinical studies will be done on some of the biotech’s lead candidates, including a dual modulator of GLP-1 and GIP incretin receptors, a GLP-1/GIP modulator, and an oral small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist.
Carmot did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Endpoints News.
James WatsonThe biotech’s platform, in short, is called “Chemotype Evolution” — and CBO James Watson told Endpoints at the last financing round that the platform allows the company to better optimize its candidates for the diseases it’s looking to treat.
This is the newest round of financing for the biotech, which has several candidates for diabetes and obesity in its pipeline — plus a candidate in oncology. Two years ago, Carmot secured $47 million in a Series C to progress its lead candidate, CT-868 and target GLP-1 and GIP, through Phase II clinical trials. Amgen had also participated in the deal.
Carmot and Amgen had been partners since 2014, with the former using its platform to find KRAS-targeting therapeutics. And as of last June, Carmot has been receiving royalty payments for its efforts in finding novel binding sites and covalent inhibitors of KRASG12, which Amgen then used to develop Lumakras, approved by the FDA last year.
“We are delighted to secure funding from a pre-eminent group of investors that will advance our clinical programs for the treatment of diabetes and obesity,” Carmot co-founder and CEO Stig Hansen said in a statement.
