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iOnctura BV has secured €80 million ($85.5 million) in a new round of financing, which the Swiss-Dutch biopharmaceutical company will use to further develop two anti-cancer drugs.

iOnctura Raises €80M For Cancer Drug Work : Major Investors Lead the Round

On Thursday, iOnctura announced that the funding round was led by life sciences investor Syncona Ltd., which invested €30 million for a 23% stake in the company. Syncona stated that no shareholder approval was needed for the investment.

The EIC Fund, the venture capital fund owned by the European Commission, is another new investor in iOnctura.

Existing investors, including European VC firms M Ventures, Inkef Capital, VI Partners, and 3B Future Health Fund, also participated in the financing round. However, the details of their investments were not disclosed.

Schroders Capital Global Innovation Trust PLC, the multinational asset manager, announced separately that it has invested £1.4 million ($1.8 million) in the latest funding round.

Promising Developments in Cancer Treatment

Roel Bulthuis, managing partner and head of investments at Syncona, expressed enthusiasm about investing in iOnctura due to its promising product pipeline.

"To date, no company has been able to successfully target this well-known cancer pathway with sufficient precision ... iOnctura has achieved a new level of precision and could be the first company to develop a clinically meaningful medicine targeting this pathway," said Bulthuis, who is also a board member at iOnctura.

iOnctura’s drug pipeline includes roginolisib, which is being developed to treat uveal melanoma, a rare eye cancer. The company claims that early trials have successfully treated more than 45 patients.

The market for uveal melanoma treatment is rapidly growing and is expected to be worth $9.56 billion by 2032. iOnctura plans to test the drug's effectiveness in other cancers, such as lung cancer.

iOnctura Raises €80M For Cancer Drug Work : Expansion of Drug Development

The company will also use part of the funds to develop cambritaxestat, aimed at treating soft tissue tumors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted cambritaxestat orphan drug designation for potential treatment of pancreatic cancer.

An orphan drug status is given to medicines that show promise in treating, preventing, or diagnosing diseases affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S.

Additional Investments by Syncona

Syncona also announced a £16.5 million investment in U.K. cancer therapy specialist Yellowstone Biosciences, acquiring a 60.9% stake in the business, which has been spun out from the University of Oxford.