Biotech firm Halda Therapeutics has raised $126 million in financing from a series B extension, bringing its funding total to $202 million to date.
The funding round included participation from new investors Deep Track Capital, Frazier Life Sciences, RA Capital Management, Vida Ventures, Boxer Capital, and Taiho Ventures, joining existing investors Canaan Partners, Access Biotechnology, Elm Street Ventures, and Connecticut Innovations.
In a statement, the New Haven, CT-based firm said that it will use the funding for clinical trials of its Riptac drug candidates for prostate cancer and breast cancer. The Riptac therapeutics are orally administered heterobifunctional molecules that target two proteins as a novel cancer cell-killing mechanism designed to address a specific cancer.
Halda Therapeutics said that the initial clinical trial for the Riptac therapeutic HLD-0915 for the treatment of patients with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer is expected to start in the first half of 2025. The funding will also support the clinical development of a second Riptac therapeutic for metastatic breast cancer.
Additionally, the firm said that it intends to invest funding into building its team and use its Riptac platform to develop additional therapies that address other indications with unmet need.
In conjunction with this financing, Rebecca Luse, principal at Deep Track Capital; Joe Cabral, principal at Frazier Life Sciences; Nandita Shangari, PhD, managing director at RA Capital Management; and Dr. Arjun Goyal, co-founder and managing director at Vida Ventures, will join Halda Therapeutics' board of directors.
