With $42M, Ex-Ignyta CEO Aims At Cancer Again With Startup, Erasca
Summary
Erasca on Tuesday closed a $42 million Series A round led by Lim’s own investment firm, City Hill Ventures , and Boston-based Cormorant Asset Management.Its name is a portmanteau of “erase” and “cancer.” And Lim, in prepared remarks, said the aim of the company is to develop drugs that can cure (or “erase”) cancer, rather than keep it at bay or manage it with chronic treatment.Since 2003, when Lim—a physician by training—joined San Diego’s Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HALO ) as CEO, he has started or led a series of biotech companies in Southern California.The Botox maker paid $195 million upfront, a deal which, among other pipeline products, scored it an investigational compound Bonti was testing as a faster acting, shorter-duration version of the Ireland-based biopharma company’s flagship facial injectable.Shoemaker is Erasca’s vice president of biology; Yeung, who prior to his time at Guardant and Annexon spent 13 years at Genentech, is its chief business officer.