Antares Therapeutics has secured $177m in a Series A financing round for the development of precision medicines to treat cancer and other serious diseases.
The company is progressing several programmes, intending to introduce its inaugural product candidate into clinical trials by 2026.
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The round was co-led by Atlas Venture, Omega Funds, Lightspeed Venture Partners, BVF Partners and Cormorant Asset Management.
Additional support came from Abingworth, Invus, Tenmile, Vida Ventures, Vinyanshu Ventures and Willett Advisors.
Antares Therapeutics CEO Adam Friedman stated: “We are building from a strong foundation with a team of experts who are experienced in making new medicines, as well as proprietary drug discovery capabilities and a robust preclinical pipeline fuelled by discoveries in drugging previously inaccessible targets.
“We are committed to leveraging our expertise to address well-validated, first-in-class targets across oncology and other serious diseases, and to continuing to execute a fast-to-clinic strategy to bring medicines to patients in need.”
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By GlobalDataThe newly established company is a spin-out from Scorpion Therapeutics, which sold its STX-478 programme to Eli Lilly in March 2025 for $2.5bn.
Founded in 2020, Scorpion raised $420m in the next five years while partnering with several pharmaceutical firms and producing six development candidates, three of which are now undergoing clinical trials.
Under the guidance of Scorpion’s former executive leadership team, Antares aims to progress small-molecule assets developed at Scorpion within precision oncology, among other areas.
Pierre Fabre Laboratories has acquired global rights to two clinical-stage mutant epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors from Scorpion for non-small cell lung cancer treatment. With this deal, Pierre Fabre will oversee their continued clinical development and global commercialisation efforts while Antares stands to gain regulatory milestones as well as tiered royalties.
