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Antares Therapeutics is a Boston and South San Francisco company spun out of Scorpion Therapeutics to make small-molecule cancer drugs against targets long considered undruggable. Its first medicine, ATX-898, entered a phase 1/2 trial in 2026, and Novartis signed a discovery deal with it in June 2026.
Antares Therapeutics develops small molecules, drawing on covalent drug discovery expertise, against validated cancer targets considered undruggable. It was spun out of Scorpion Therapeutics when Scorpion's clinical programmes were sold; two mutant-EGFR inhibitors for non-small cell lung cancer developed at Scorpion, PFL-721 and PFL-241, are licensed to Pierre Fabre. In June 2025 the company raised USD 177 million to advance its preclinical assets, from investors including Atlas Venture, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, Omega Funds, Vida Ventures, Abingworth, BVF Partners and Invus. Its lead, ATX-898, is in a phase 1/2 study in advanced solid tumours that includes a combination arm with fulvestrant (NCT07767474). On 24 June 2026 it agreed with Novartis to discover, develop and commercialise first-in-class cancer therapies for USD 105 million upfront and up to USD 1.8 billion in further payments plus tiered royalties. Adam Friedman is chief executive.
| Round | Year | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series A · Amount from the Fierce Biotech headline linked from the company's news page; the Series A label comes from a trade funding tracker and the lead investors were not confirmed | 2025 | $177M | fiercebiotech.com |
Amounts only where the cited source states them. Rounds without a public source are not listed.
Shares Omega Funds, Vida Ventures, Cormorant Asset Management.
Shares Cormorant Asset Management, EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer, EGFR, Small-molecule kinase inhibitors.
Shares Pierre Fabre, EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer, EGFR.
Shares Lightspeed Venture Partners, Atlas Venture.
Shares Pierre Fabre, EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer, EGFR.
Shares Lightspeed Venture Partners, Atlas Venture.
Shares Atlas Venture, Novartis.
Shares Vida Ventures, EGFR.
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