Pathos AI has secured $365 million in a series D raise as the artificial-intelligence-powered biotech looks to fund trials of solid tumor drugs sourced from Novo Nordisk and Prelude Therapeutics.
The company can now lay claim to a post-money valuation of around $1.6 billion, according to a May 15 release. At the top of Pathos’ spending priorities is advancing its clinical-stage pipeline, which is led by pocenbrodib.
The Boston-based biotech licensed the CBP/p300 inhibitor program in 2023 from Novo Nordisk, where the med was in phase 1 development for prostate cancer. When it acquired the drug, which has origins at Forma Therapeutics, Pathos said pocenbrodib had the potential to work against multiple other tumor types.
In March, Pathos launched its own phase 1b/2a trial of pocenbrodib as a monotherapy and in combination with Zytiga, Lynparza or Pluvicto in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
The company told Fierce Biotech on Thursday that its other “key priority” this year is to launch a trial of P-500, a brain-penetrant PRMT5 inhibitor licensed from Prelude Therapeutics in 2024. Prelude had been assessing the drug in a phase 1 trial of patients with solid tumors, including high-grade glioma and uveal melanoma.
In both cases, Pathos’ strategy is to use its PathOS Platform to identify biomarkers that could help pinpoint patient populations that would most benefit from these clinical-stage drugs.
Pathos also took ownership of the phase 3-stage MDM2 inhibitor milademetan as part of its acquisition of Rain Oncology in December 2023. However, Pathos hasn’t name-checked the failed liposarcoma therapy in its more recent releases.
In addition to funding its clinical work, Pathos stated that this morning’s series D would be used to further invest in its AI platform to “drive greater speed, precision and success in oncology drug development.”
The next phase of work on the platform involves drawing together clinical, molecular and imaging data to help improve the selection of clinical assets and oncology biomarkers as well as to improve trial designs.
“Pathos was founded to transform drug development by harnessing the full potential of multimodal data and AI,” said Iker Huerga, who took over as CEO of the biotech last week.
“With this financing, we’re building one of the most advanced AI engines, designed to accelerate development, deepen clinical insight, and ensure the right therapies reach the patients who need them most,” added Huerga, who most recently served as chief data scientist for oncology R&D at AstraZeneca.
Thursday's release didn’t include the identities of the participants in the series D round. Pathos told Fierce Biotech the round included a mix of returning backers and fresh capital from new investors. The latest round comes just seven months after Pathos raised a $62 million series C led by New Enterprise Associates.