Boston-headquartered Aktis Oncology, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing alpha radiopharmaceuticals to target solid tumors, said it closed an oversubscribed and upsized $175 million Series B funding round led by RA Capital Management.
RTW Investments and Janus Henderson Investors co-led the investment, while a select syndicate of new investors, including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Dallas, Texas-based Avidity Partners, and an unidentified life sciences-focused investment fund participated. Other investors in the round included all existing institutional investors, as well as existing strategic investors — Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, and MRL Ventures Fund, the corporate venture fund of Merck & Co. So far, Aktis has raised $331 million from investors.
Financial Smarts
Aktis CEO Matthew Roden told Citybiz.co that the company would use the proceeds to “further advance our differentiated radiopharmaceuticals pipeline, including our first-in-class Nectin-4-targeted miniprotein radioconjugate program.” Nectin-4 is a tumor-associated antigen found in urothelial and other solid cancers.
Roden, who has led Aktis since 2023, holds a Ph. D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and performed pre-doctoral research at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.. He brings significant financial credentials, after overseeing equity research at top investment banks such as UBS, JPMorgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. At Bristol Myers Squibb, Rodin developed its initial strategic plan following its $74 billion acquisition of Celgene in 2019.
Cash-Rich
“Nectin-4 is the first of several programs that we have in development, and is an example of how we’re moving into new patient populations with a significant unmet need,” Roden told Citybiz.co. The company said it has $300 million in cash to pursue multiple opportunities.
For the Nectin-4 program, “we will be presenting 3 abstracts at the upcoming Triple Meeting in Barcelona, including an oral presentation on our recent clinical imaging assessment of AKY-1189 in several tumor types,” Roden said.
“We are preparing for a broad Ph1 program in multiple tumor types and believe this program has significant patient impact potential,” he added. Aktis has “several programs in earlier development, and our next program after Nectin-4 is currently tracking to be in the clinic next year,” Roden said.
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Eli Lilly Deal
Together with the funding round, Aktis named RA Capital’s Andrew Levin as a board member, and Lauren Lee of RTW Investments and Vish Sridharan of Janus Henderson Investors as board observers.
“Aktis has leveraged its unique technology platform, experienced team, robust supply chain and radiopharmaceutical development capabilities to generate a promising and differentiated pipeline of next-generation radiopharmaceuticals,” said Levin, MD, Ph. D., partner and managing director at RA Capital.
In May, Aktis entered into a strategic collaboration with Eli Lilly to leverage its miniprotein platform to develop novel radioconjugates outside of Aktis’ proprietary pipeline. Under the deal, Aktis will receive $60 million upfront for the collaboration and also be eligible for milestone payments of up to $1.1 billion and royalties on sales. Lilly also took an undisclosed equity stake in Aktis.
