SEATTLE– KayoThera, Inc. (“KayoThera”), an early-stage therapeutics company developing first-in-class, oral, small molecule inhibitors of the retinoid pathway, today announces the strengthening of its financial resources through multiple grant awards and expansion of its previously announced Series A financing. The expanded financing was led by Accelerator Life Science Partners (ALSP), who also provided Series A funding for KayoThera. With the additional $5.2 million in new equity investments, non-dilutive grant funding, and initial seed funding from the New Jersey Health Foundation, KayoThera’s total financial support to date is $14 million.
KayoThera has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program1,2 and the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund3. In addition, KayoThera secured additional Series A financing in an expansion round led by ALSP that also included participation from BioAdvance, Pier 70 Ventures, and WRF Capital. The additional resources secured by KayoThera will further support the Company’s therapeutic development programs.
“The grant awards are important validation of our development programs, and the expanded Series A financing reflects our investor’s confidence in our ability to innovate oral, small molecule inhibitors of the retinoid pathway,” said Mark Esposito, Ph.D., Vice President, R&D, and Co-Founder of KayoThera. “With the additional financial resources announced today, we are well-positioned to advance our lead diabetes and oncology programs, each of which has first-in-class potential in disease indications with large patient populations and significant unmet medical need.”
“Our belief that KayoThera offers a compelling investment opportunity and has the potential to transform the treatment of serious metabolic diseases and cancer was the key driver for our initial investment in the Company,” said Thong Q. Le, Senior Managing Director of ALSP and CEO of KayoThera. “Since the initial Series A financing in March 2022, KayoThera has made significant progress in advancing its core technology and development programs. The additional funding announced today will allow the Company to continue making exciting advances in innovating small molecule inhibitors of the retinoid pathway and position itself for strategic partnering activity that will further help realize the commercial and clinical value of its science.”
The retinoid pathway is known to play critical roles in several serious diseases. For example, the clinical use of retinoid activators leads to both adverse cardiometabolic events such as hyperlipidemias as well as increased cancer rates and faster cancer progression. KayoThera’s unique approach to drugging this pathway is based on biology discovered at Princeton University and represents the first platform to create drug-like retinoid inhibitors.
References
1 NIH NIDDK (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) R43DK136420. Grant title: Development of first-in-class antagonists of the retinoid pathway as novel oral therapies for Type 2 Diabetes.
2 NIH NCI (National Cancer Institute) R43CA278127. Grant title: Development of first-in-class antagonists of the retinoid pathway as novel oral immunotherapies for solid cancers.
3 The Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund FY23-LS-05. Grant title: Development of a First-in-Class Immunotherapy to Treat Advanced Solid Tumors Through IND-Enabling Safety Studies.
