Israeli medical device company Alpha Tau Medical has secured $26m in a Series B equity financing to support the clinical development of its Alpha DaRT therapy.
Existing investors including Shavit Capital, Medison Ventures, and OurCrowd, along with various new private and family office investors from Israel and North America have participated in the funding round.
Established in 2016, Alpha Tau Medical is a cancer therapy developer focused on research, development, and commercialisation of its Alpha DaRT to treat solid tumours.
Alpha Tau Medical CEO Uzi Sofer said: “We are humbled by the groundswell of continued support we’ve seen from both existing and new investors.
“This will enable us to push forward our mission to help cancer patients across the world, even during these challenging times in which COVID-19 is the focus of everyone’s health concerns.”
Alpha DaRT will act against the tumour, leaving healthy tissue around it unaffected
Alpha DaRT is delivered by intratumoral insertion of radium-224 impregnated seeds, to enable highly potent and conformal alpha-irradiation of solid tumours.
The short-lived daughters of the radium are released from the seed while it decays, and disperse emitting high-energy alpha particles that destroy the tumour.
As alpha-emitting atoms diffuse only a short distance, Alpha DaRT would primarily affects the tumour and leaves the healthy tissue around it unaffected.
In 2019, Alpha Tau has completed the first-in-human clinical trial of Alpha DaRT in squamous cell carcinoma patients from Italy and Israel.
The company is currently conducting clinical trials in different clinical indications across the world, including a US trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, a pancreatic cancer trial at CHUM in Montreal, and trials at three academic institutions in Japan.
Alpha Tau Medical CFO Raphi Levy said: “We have been very fortunate to continue our progress at full speed across all fronts, including R&D, clinical and operations, and now financing as well, even during a period of global turmoil.
“As concerns associated with systemic cancer therapies that affect the immune system have become more salient, we see strong interest in our trials from clinicians, patients, and investors who recognize the advantages of a focused and highly potent cancer therapy.”
