Mitra Biotech raises $27.4 million from Sequoia India, Sands Capital

Company will use funds to expand the availability of its CANScript service, which predicts personalised responses to cancer treatments

Mitra Biotech Inc, a private biotech company which develops technologies that personalise cancer treatment, has raised $27.4 million from Sequoia India, Sands Capital Ventures, and RA Capital Management. Sequoia and Sands co-led the Series B round of financing, and both will join Mitra's board of directors.

This round provides an exit to Series A investors KITVEN and India Innovation Fund, while Accel and Tata Capital Innovations Fund will continue to be investors.

Mitra will use the funds to expand the availability of its CANScript service, which predicts personalised responses to cancer treatments and has demonstrated an extremely high correlation to actual clinical response. CANScript, a platform validated on thousands of patients, is used both to tailor therapies for patients and to speed drug development.

"These new funds will allow us to enhance our technology and engage in new studies to further demonstrate CANScript's clinical utility. We will also move forward with our commercial efforts in the United States, as well as emerging and other key markets," said Mallikarjun Sundaram, president, co-founder, and CEO of Mitra. "We are excited to have such distinguished new investors join us in our efforts to personalise therapy selection for cancer patients around the world. We also appreciate the continued support from our ongoing investors and wish to thank our exiting investors," he added.

"Accel is proud to continue our investment and active involvement with Mitra," said Mahendran Balachandran, Partner at Accel and Mitra Board member. "We also welcome our new investment partners and look forward to working with them to accomplish Mitra's long-term clinical and commercial goals." "Sequoia is pleased to join Mitra in their mission to have cancer patients receive treatments with the highest likelihood of success at the time when they can be most impactful," said Anjana Sasidharan, Sequoia Principal and new Mitra Board member. "CANScript can also help patients avoid the side effects and costs of ineffective treatments."

"CANScript has the potential to dramatically speed oncology drug discovery and development by matching compounds to their indications of highest impact. We are excited about the possibilities represented by Mitra and their developing technology," stated Ian Ratcliffe, new Mitra Board member representing Sands.

Mitra Biotech is a leader in supporting personalised oncology therapy selection and drug development. Founded in 2010, it is headquartered in the Boston area, and maintains a significant research and laboratory presence in Bangalore, India.

The company is led by a team of researchers, scientists, and medical commercialisation professionals. Their focus is on advancing the effective personalisation of cancer treatments and care around the world.

Mitra's CANScript platform is a novel functional assay that reliably replicates a patient's personal tumor microenvironment, including the immune network. Selected drug therapies are then applied to the tumor and multiple response parameters are measured. These tumor responses are then synthesised by CANScript's advanced algorithm into a single score that predicts efficacy. Test results are typically available in a week.

The CANScript platform has been validated using thousands of cancer patients, and has demonstrated an extremely high correlation to actual clinical responses.