Zumutor Biologics, a biotech startup in the immuno-oncology area, has raised $6.2 million in new funding led by Siana Capital as it works to deliver its primary antibody molecule for prostate cancer (ZM 008) into phase 1 clinical trials in the United States by the middle of next year.

Existing investors Accel and Bharat Innovation Fund also participated in the current round, increasing the total money received by the Boston-based startup to $27 million.

“We were supposed to take our lead asset into clinical trials last year, but that got pushed (due to the pandemic) and the regulatory environment also changed due to vaccine prioritisation,” said Kavitha Iyer Rodrigues, CEO of Zumutor Biologics.

“With this funding, we’re now going to go into investigative new drug finding in the beginning of next year and phase 1 clinical trials in the middle of next year,” she said, adding that the company is in a good position now with data from non-human trials looking promising.

Zumutor stated that the completion of phase 1 trials will provide it with a plethora of options for strategic licencing of its lead asset, with the possibility of enlisting biopharma companies to conduct phase 2-4 trials once the molecule's safety is established.

Typically, biotech R&D firms like Zumutor licence their molecules to biopharma majors, who then launch the products as either a monotherapy or a combination therapy once all phases of clinical trials are completed.

“We will continue to develop other assets in our pipeline, of which there are four, and we will take the asset from phase 1 into phase 2 and look for licensing partners, and at that point might also consider listing,” Rodrigues added.

Zumutor's ZM008 is a first-in-class antibody molecule that, according to the company, activates a patient's natural killer (NK) cells to fight cancer cells. INABLR, the company's unique antibody discovery platform, was used to produce these compounds.