Oxford’s Enara Bio raises $32.5m for novel immunotherapies

Enara Bio in Oxford has closed a $32.5 million series B financing to advance its pipeline of immunotherapies targeting so-called ‘dark antigens’.

Dark antigens are a novel class of cancer-specific targets derived from the genomic ‘dark matter’ of cells.

Since these antigens are unique to cancer cells, they make promising targets for immunotherapy.

Enara’s latest round was co-led by new investors Pfizer Ventures and M Ventures, with participation from existing investors including RA Capital, Samsara BioCapital and SV Health Investors.

Kevin Pojasek, president and CEO of Enara Bio, said: “We’re delighted to have the backing of these sophisticated investors as we strive to develop novel immunotherapies that can provide durable clinical benefit for broad populations of cancer patients.

“Earlier this year, our EDAPT platform received strong external validation when Boehringer Ingelheim decided to exercise its option to license multiple dark antigens to develop off-the-shelf immunotherapies for lung cancer.

“The fundraise, led by two new strategic investors, reflects the quality of our science and further underlines not only the groundbreaking potential of dark antigens, but also our internal pipeline of first-in-class immunotherapies.”

As part of the raise, Rana Al-Hallaq, partner at Pfizer Ventures, and Bauke Anninga, investment director at M Ventures, have both joined the Enara board.

Rana said: “Despite major breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy over the last decade, only a minority of patients with solid tumours receive durable benefit from existing treatments.

“Dark antigens may unlock the potential of immunotherapy for many additional patients with solid tumours, and we’re pleased to support Enara’s development of this cutting-edge platform to discover and validate these previously untapped targets.”

Bauke added: “We’re pleased to co-lead this funding round as Enara’s EDAPT platform has already discovered a series of attractive dark antigen targets that are shared across solid tumour patients with high unmet needs.

“We’ve been impressed by Enara’s high-calibre team and world-class expertise in developing T-cell receptor-based therapies.

“We’re excited at the progress already made building a pipeline of differentiated therapies that could provide transformational clinical benefit to patients who are poorly served by today’s cancer immunotherapies.”