Precision oncology company Black Diamond Therapeutics raises $85m

Black Diamond Therapeutics, a precision oncology company based in Cambridge, has raised $85 million from a Series C financing round led by Boxer Capital of the Tavistock Group.

Additional new investors in the Series C round included Wellington Management Company, BVF Partners, Deerfield Management, funds managed by Janus Henderson Investors, Logos Capital, and Casdin Capital.

The companies joined current investors that include Versant Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, RA Capital Management, Nextech Invest, Invus, Roche Venture Fund, Perceptive Advisors, and City Hill Ventures, who took part in the round.

Black Diamond Therapeutics plans to use the proceeds from the financing round to support its growth and advance the development of its lead product candidates targeting oncogenic driver mutations of the ErbB kinases in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).

Precision oncology company Black Diamond Therapeutics raises $85m. Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

The precision oncology company intends to begin a combined Phase 1/2 clinical trial of BDTX-189, its most advanced product candidate, in H1 2020. The funding will also be used towards the continued expansion of its earlier stage research programs and Mutation-Allostery-Pharmacology (MAP) platform to identify and target oncogenic mutations, said Black Diamond Therapeutics.

Aaron Davis – CEO of Boxer Capital said, “Black Diamond’s ground-breaking MAP platform could revolutionize how we discover and develop new oncology treatments, particularly for some of the most difficult-to-treat cancers. We are delighted to partner with this group of leading investors and experienced management team in this endeavor.”

Operating initially in stealth mode from New York and from Versant’s Switzerland-based Ridgeline Discovery Engine, the precision oncology company has raised $194 million since its founding.

David M. Epstein – President and CEO of Black Diamond Therapeutics said: “There are currently no drugs approved by the FDA to target certain allosteric and other EGFR and HER2 mutations that are prevalent in a variety of cancers with a single therapy, including in patients with deadly cancers like lung cancer or glioblastoma that express these mutations.

“This funding will help accelerate development of our lead product candidates targeting undrugged oncogenic driver mutations of EGFR and HER2 so that we can get potential new treatments to patients as quickly as possible.”