Cyterix raises $9.2M in Series A financing from The Column Group and SV Life Sciences

Cyterix Pharmaceutics, Inc. announced today that the company has raised $9.2 million in a Series A financing from The Column Group and SV Life Sciences. Cyterix is developing novel cancer therapeutics based on a prodrug approach that targets extra-hepatic cytochrome P450 enzymes that are over-expressed in many cancers to a high frequency, but not in normal tissues. The company's goal is to discover and develop multiple classes of small molecule oncology prodrugs with a superior safety and efficacy profile to classical cytotoxic and molecularly targeted agents.

“the cell to the clinic to the community”

As part of the transaction, Tim Kutzkey, Ph.D., Partner at The Column Group, and Lutz Giebel, Ph.D., Managing Partner at SV Life Sciences, have joined the Cyterix Board of Directors.

Cyterix was founded in April 2010 by a team of three scientific/clinical experts in the development of prodrugs and biochemistry of cytochrome P450 enzymes. Prof. Steven A. Everett, MBA, Ph.D., now President and Chief Executive Officer, invented Cyterix's OncoCYP^TM-targeted prodrug discovery approach, which underpins the company's technology platform for the development of prodrugs specifically activated by extra-hepatic cytochrome P450s. The work was conducted while Prof. Everett was Head of the Drug Discovery and Translational Research Group at the University of Dundee in Scotland and was supported by Cancer Research UK. The intellectual property associated with this work has now been exclusively licensed to Cyterix on a worldwide basis. Cyterix's second founder, the late John Curd, M.D., was the former President and Chief Medical Officer of Threshold Pharmaceuticals and brought to the formation of Cyterix over 10 years experience in the clinical development of prodrug therapeutics. The company's third founder is Prof. Paul Ortiz de Montellano, Ph.D., a world-renowned expert in cytochrome P450 biochemistry, based at the University of California, San Francisco.

"The completion of this financing with two very experienced investor groups underscores the potential for safer, more efficacious anti-cancer drugs that is offered by Cyterix's targeted prodrug approach," said Prof. Everett. "Continuing in our cash-efficient business model, we expect these funds to advance our two lead compounds through IND-enabling studies, as well as further expand the development of our technology platform and our exploration of new targets within the extra-hepatic cytochrome P450 enzyme family. We are very grateful for the assistance and support that we've received to date from the University of Dundee, the funding body Cancer Research UK, and latterly the University of California at San Francisco - Mission Bay. We are also grateful to have benefited from the enormous knowledge and drug development experience of our late co-founder, John Curd."

"Currently approved cancer drugs may be effective against malignant cells, but often suffer from dose-limiting toxicities due to their effects on normal, as well as cancerous tissues," said Richard D. Klausner, M.D., Managing Partner at The Column Group and former Director of the National Cancer Institute. "Cyterix has created a novel proprietary approach aimed at tackling one of the holy grails of cancer drug development - the ability to specifically and selectively deliver drugs into tumor cells."

"Cyterix represents an excellent combination of innovative science, experienced management and a cost-efficient business structure," said Lutz Giebel, Ph.D., Managing Partner at SV Life Sciences. "Together these factors, combined with the clear need for safer cancer therapeutics, make the company a compelling investment prospect."

"We are delighted to be involved in this exciting venture and to see University of Dundee technology being translated through Cyterix, which is the University's first US-based startup company," said Diane Taylor, Director of The University of Dundee's Technology Transfer Office.