Artios Pharma is working on a pipeline of oncology assets, led by alnodesertib, currently being tested for second-line pancreatic cancer and third-line colorectal cancer.
Artios Pharma has picked up $115 million in a series D round that will go toward the further development of its oncology pipeline, the company announced Monday.
In particular, Artios plans to use the funds for lead program alnodesertib, currently being tested for second-line pancreatic cancer and third-line colorectal cancer.
Data presented in April showed that alnodesertib, when combined with low-dose irinotecan, led to a 50% confirmed overall response in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors who were negative for a protein called ATM. Meanwhile, in the subgroup of patients with low ATM, the response rate was 22%.
Artios plans to use Monday’s raise to enroll more ATM-negative patients in both these cancer cohorts.
Additionally, the series D proceeds will also help Artios start a Phase II trial for ART6043, a DNA polymerase theta inhibitor being proposed for patients with BRCA-mutant HER2-negative breast cancer.
Data presented at the 2025 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in September support a once-daily dosing profile for ART6043 and pointed to its potential to be combined with AstraZeneca and Merck’s Lynparza.
Safety findings also pointed to a “benign” tolerability profile, Artios said at the time.
This fundraising round was led by founding investor SV Health Investors alongside new backer RA Capital Management. Janus Henderson Investors also participated in the effort and joined Artios’ existing roster of supporters.
2025 has seen a series of high-value fundraisings in biopharma. Those include Isomorphic Labs’ $600 million round in March, Odyssey Therapeutics’ $213 million series D in September and Kriya Therapeutics’ $313.3 million push in August. Obesity-focused Verdiva Bio debuted in January with $410 million to advance next-generation therapies, ranking as the year’s largest series A so far.
Most recently, a pair of hair-regrowth biotechs last month were able to rope in hefty sums for their respective programs: $120 million in series B proceeds for Pelage Pharmaceuticals and $150 million in series C earnings for Veradermics.
