REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--REVOLUTION Medicines, Inc., a drug discovery and development company focused on frontier cancer targets, today announced it has raised $56 million in a Series B financing to support its ongoing R&D programs and general business activities. The financing was supported by a syndicate of premier life sciences investors led by Nextech Invest, an oncology-focused investment firm, and included participation from Casdin Capital, Schroder Adveq, The Column Group, Third Rock Ventures and additional undisclosed institutional investors.
In addition, the company announced the expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of Ryan Martins as chief financial officer; Xiaolin Wang, D.Sc., as senior vice president, clinical development; and Hirdesh Uppal, D.V.M., Ph.D., as vice president, development sciences. Thilo Schroeder, Ph.D., partner at Nextech Invest, and Barbara Weber, M.D., chief executive officer of Tango Therapeutics, joined the company’s board of directors.
“We appreciate the strong support shown by our founding and new investors in this significant financing that will fuel the advancement of our exciting SHP2 program and innovative pipeline,” said Mark A. Goldsmith, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer at REVOLUTION Medicines. “The raise of new capital, expansion of our executive team and board with seasoned leaders, and multiple presentations about progress in our SHP2 program at the recent AACR conference all reflect enormous momentum in our effort to outsmart cancer.”
Leadership Team and Board of Directors Appointments
- Mr. Martins joins REVOLUTION Medicines from Ultragenyx, where he served as vice president, finance, corporate strategy and investor relations with responsibility for capital raising, investor relations, financial and competitive analysis, strategic planning and business development. Mr. Martins was previously a biotechnology analyst at investment banks including Lehman Brothers, Barclays, Lazard and Jefferies.
- Dr. Wang joins the company from Acerta Pharma, where she held a senior leadership position in clinical development and was instrumental in the recent approval of acalabrutinib (Calquence®). Dr. Wang previously served in leadership positions in clinical development and biometrics at Genentech and Geron.
- Dr. Uppal joins REVOLUTION Medicines from Medivation, where he led translational medicine and diagnostics until the company’s acquisition by Pfizer. Prior to Medivation, Dr. Uppal served in development roles at Roche and Genentech.
- Dr. Schroeder is a partner at Nextech Invest. He has served as director or observer on the boards of Blueprint Medicines, IDEAYA Bioscience, and Peloton Therapeutics, and previously conducted research on designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) as specific protein inhibitors at the University of Zurich.
- Dr. Weber is chief executive officer of Tango Therapeutics. Prior to Tango, she led oncology translational medicine at Novartis, oncology discovery and translational medicine at GlaxoSmithKline, the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center Breast Cancer Program and cancer genomics at the Abramson Cancer Research Institute.
“I am very enthusiastic about the high-quality cancer drug discovery and development work being done by REVOLUTION Medicines and am pleased to support this world-class team to help advance the company’s mission on behalf of patients in need,” said Dr. Schroeder.
About REVOLUTION Medicines
The mission of REVOLUTION Medicines is to discover and develop new drugs directed toward frontier oncology targets for cancer patients. The company has a robust pipeline of R&D programs focused on frontier targets, including SHP2 (PTPN11), a tyrosine phosphatase enzyme that regulates cancer growth signaling and the immune response, SHP1 (PTPN6), a second tyrosine phosphatase that regulates multiple arms of the immune response, and 4EBP1, a key regulator of oncogene translation in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. at the intersection of Silicon Valley and the birthplace of biotechnology, REVOLUTION Medicines is a private company financed by top-tier investors. For more information, please visit www.revolutionmedicines.com.
