Synthorx completed a $63 million Series C financing, led by OrbiMed and joined by new investors, Medicxi and Osage University Partners, and existing investors, Avalon Ventures, RA Capital Management, and Correlation Ventures.
The funding will support Synthorx’s lead program using interleukin-2 (IL-2) cytokines to treat cancer. As Synthorx CEO Laura Shawver told Xconomy, further preclinical studies are aimed at determining if Synthorx’s approach can reduce the side effects of cancer treatments:
“We’ll need to demonstrate that we can selectively boost the immune-fighting ability without boosting those immune cells that are responsible for the side-effects,” said Shawver.