XTuit Pharmaceuticals Closes $22 Million Series A Financing to Advance Novel Microenvironmental Modulators for Cancers and Fibrotic Disorders

XTuit Pharmaceuticals has announced a $22 million Series A financing. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the development of XTuit’s lead products into the clinic in oncology and liver cirrhosis and NASH and to build its biomarker platform which will enable rapid clinical proof-of-concept.  The Series A financing was led by New Enterprise Associates and joined by founding investor Polaris Partners, and new investors CTI Life Sciences, Arcus Ventures and Omega Funds.

“We are excited to close our Series A round with a strong syndicate validating our novel therapeutic approach. The microenvironment represents an important new target for therapeutic intervention that could have profound implications in oncology and fibrotic disease,” said Alan Crane, CEO of XTuit. “This financing will enable us to demonstrate the activity of our lead products in human trials.  Our objective is to show in clinical studies that we can significantly improve outcomes in oncology with immune checkpoint drugs as well as other cancer agents and that we can rapidly and significantly reverse fibrosis in liver cirrhosis and NASH.”

XTuit’s proprietary, microenvironment-activated drugs have unique, single agent, disease reversing activity in fibrotic inflammatory conditions. In addition, the drugs have strong synergistic combination activity in cancer where they enhance anti-tumor efficacy of standard-of-care drugs, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, chemotherapy, and targeted agents. To support the development of its drugs, the company is building a novel quantitative, tissue-based biomarker platform for efficacy prediction.

“The microenvironment has been increasingly recognized over the last several years for its critical role in disease progression as well as in drug and immune resistance. We are very excited about the opportunity to translate this novel area of science into significant impact on clinical treatment outcomes across cancers and fibrotic diseases.  Our scientific founders, Rakesh K. Jain, professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Robert Langer, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ronald Evans, professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, have played a leadership role in elucidating these novel mechanisms and developing drugs to address these processes,” said Peter Blume-Jensen, Chief Scientific Officer of XTuit. 

“Our microenvironment-activated agents inhibit key mechanisms, including hypoxia, abnormal matrix accumulation, recruitment of stromal cells and aberrant stromal signaling. Because of the mechanisms involved, these agents are particularly suitable for biomarker-accelerated clinical development.”

“We are very excited to be investors in XTuit. The company combines world-class scientific and business teams, a fundamental and potentially breakthrough mechanistic approach to disease, and a rapid path to demonstration of efficacy in people,” said David Mott, General Partner and head of the healthcare practice of New Enterprise Associates. In connection with the financing, Mr Mott will join the board of XTuit.