Ben Fidler
2 min read
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Fresh off a multibillion-dollar deal with Eli Lilly, cancer drug startup Scorpion Therapeutics is trying for an encore, debuting a successor company on Tuesday that’s carrying forward much of its previous work.
Called Antares Therapeutics, the startup is launching with $177 million in financing from nearly a dozen investors, among them previous backers Omega Funds and Atlas Venture. Antares will use that cash to advance a group of small molecule drugs Scorpion had been working on, as well as programs the company had been advancing through a 2022 partnership with AstraZeneca. Its work will specifically focus on cancer and other unspecified “serious diseases,” according to a statement.
The company didn’t divulge more details about its pipeline, only noting on its website that its first program should begin human testing in 2026 and multiple others are in preclinical development. In a statement, CEO Adam Friedman, who previously ran Scorpion, said the company’s research is "fueled by discoveries in drugging previously inaccessible targets.”
Antares could also get future milestone payments and royalties from a pair of cancer drugs involved in a Scorpion alliance with Pierre Fabre Laboratories. Another startup, Moma Therapeutics, has rights to a PARP inhibitor Scorpion was advancing, too.
Scorpion was co-founded in 2020 by Gary Glick, who helped the company raise nearly $300 million in venture funding before departing in 2021. Prior to Scorpion, Glick led Lycera, which formed a 2015 deal with Celgene, and IFM Therapeutics, which has spun off multiple companies that were acquired by larger drugmakers.
Glick went on to lead inflammatory drug developer Odyssey Therapeutics, which has been trying to go public. In the meantime, Scorpion was helmed by Friedman, who helped the company raise additional funding, form multiple partnerships and generate six cancer drug candidates, three of which are in clinical testing, according to its statement.
Scorpion sold one, dubbed STX-678, to Eli Lilly in January for as much as $2.5 billion. As part of that deal, it formed a new company holding its other assets and inheriting its employees. That company, now known as Antares, is supported by Scorpion’s old shareholders and also led by Friedman.
“Antares will build on what Scorpion started: combining cutting edge computational and experimental chemistry and biology with laser-focused clinical development,” said Keith Flaherty, a board member and director of clinical research at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, in a statement.
