TESARO, Inc., an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has secured $101 million in a Series B financing to advance and expand the Company's cancer product portfolio. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) led the Series B round with participants including founding investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and new investors: InterWest Partners, T. Rowe Price, Pappas Ventures, Oracle Partners, Deerfield Management and Leerink Swann.
TESARO was co-founded by former executives of MGI PHARMA, an oncology and acute-care focused biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by Eisai Co., Ltd. in 2008 for $3.9 billion. NEA and TESARO management funded an initial $20 million Series A financing in May 2010 to facilitate the Company's acquisition, development and commercialization of a portfolio of oncology and supportive care products. NEA is the largest investor in the Series B financing.
In the thirteen months since founding, TESARO has made substantial progress toward building a leading oncology-focused pipeline. In December 2010, the Company announced that it had in-licensed its first product, rolapitant, from OPKO Health, Inc. Rolapitant is a Phase 3-ready neurokinin-1 (NK1) receptor antagonist being developed for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). In March 2011, TESARO announced that it had in-licensed small molecule inhibitors of Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) from Amgen Inc. The ALK program represents a molecularly targeted approach to treating certain cancer sub-populations with compounds that have promising potency, selectivity and pharmaceutical properties. TESARO plans to develop one or more compounds for oncology indications, including the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express an ALK fusion protein; recent clinical proof-of-concept has been demonstrated for ALK inhibition in this patient population. The Series B financing will fund further development of these programs and expansion of the pipeline.
"We are very pleased to have this superb group of new investors join management and NEA in financing the development and expansion of our pipeline of oncology product candidates," said Lonnie Moulder, Chief Executive Officer. "This new capital will fully fund the development of rolapitant through Phase 3 clinical trials and potential regulatory submissions, and advance the ALK inhibitor program into a clinical trial assessing safety and activity in cancer patients. It will also allow us to continue to leverage the experience and competencies of our team to acquire and develop promising drug candidates with the goal of commercializing meaningful products for the treatment and support of cancer patients."
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