Kanaph Therapeutics Raises 6M USD in Series A Financing for “Large and Small Molecule Drug Development in Immuno-Oncology”

Participation from Timefolio Asset Management and Meritz Securities – Funds to be used to cure solid tumors with its tumor microenvironment(TME)-targeting immunocytokine platform, TMEkine^TM

Kanaph Therapeutics, a newly founded biotech, recently raised 6M USD from Timefolio Asset Management and Meritz Securities for its Series A financing. This follows a seed investment of approximately 2M USD, whereby Kanaph has secured funding for its drug discovery and development activities.

Kanaph Therapeutics was founded by Byoung Chul Lee, who builds on his extensive experience in antibody drug development accumulated at Genentech, 23andMe and Santen. The limitation of current immuno-oncology drugs is that a response can only be seen in 20-30% of patients, but the immunocytokine platform, TMEkine^TM, that Lee has created aims to enhance such response rates. The conceptual IP has been licensed in from various universities in the US and because significant amounts of discovery research has already been completed, Kanaph will be ready to enter pre-clinical studies within a year.

The company does not only develop large molecules but also small molecule therapies. The goal is to increase the probability of technical success of its pipeline by taking a two-track strategy; first-in-class large molecule therapies for new targets and best-in-class small molecule therapies for targets that have already been sufficiently validated.

Driving Kanaph’s drug development activities are doctorate level key researchers from big pharma such as Amgen and top tier Korean pharma companies, all with over 10 years of experience in the field.

Lee said, “Our TMEkine^TM platform will target crucial mechanisms for overcoming immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment to meet the unmet medical needs of cancer patients.” He added, “We are considering combination strategies between our large molecule and small molecule therapies to create a more synergistic effect.” Upon evaluation of the pipeline, resources will be allocated to the most promising program for development into the clinic in 2021. Lee believes “Kanaph’s world class Scientific Advisory Board members Deborah Charych of Third Rock Ventures, Professor Brian Shoichet of UCSF, Professor Byoung Chul Cho of Yonsei Cancer Center will play an important role in refining our drug development strategy, and our strategic alliance with Yonsei Cancer Center and Chung-Ang University will allow us to meet milestones at shortened timelines.”