Ryvu Therapeutics bags €22m from EIB
Polish cancer drug developer, Ryvu Therapeutics, has received €22m funding from the European Investment Bank via its venture debt instrument.
The funds are part of the EIBs budget to fund innovation of which €1.5bn are earmarked for Polish companies.
Ryvu Therapeutics said, it will use the proceeds to accelerate the development of pipeline products to treat severe blood cancers and solid tumours. This includes further clinical development of its lead program, RVU120, a selective CDK8/19 kinase inhibitor in Phase I dose escalation studies for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, as well as solid tumors.
In June, the company reported preliminary results from its Phase 1b dose-escalation study of RVU120 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (HR-MDS) with DNMT3A and NPM1 mutations. One out of 16 patients dosed with the small molecule inhibitor showed complete remission for 18 months.
Anti-cancer efficacy of RVU120 was associated with transcriptomic reprogramming involving lineage commitment and inhibition of homeobox genes. Repression of homeobox genes in the responder patient confirms the on-target activity of RVU120.