Israeli cancer therapy co Alpha Tau raises $26m

4 Jun, 2020 15:44

Alpha DaRT’s alpha-emitting atoms diffuse only a short distance, mainly affecting the tumor, and sparing the healthy tissue around it.

Israeli alpha-radiation cancer therapy developer Alpha Tau Medical has announced the closing of a $26 million Series B financing round from investors including Shavit Capital, Medison Ventures, and OurCrowd with private and family office investors primarily from Israel and North America.Over the past year, Alpha Tau has successfully completed its first-in-human clinical trial of Alpha DaRT with squamous cell carcinoma patients from Italy and Israel.

The company is now conducting clinical trials in multiple clinical indications across the world, including its first 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 is also establishing global manufacturing facilities in Israel and elsewhere, and is in the process of obtaining the EU CE mark for marketing in Europe.

Alpha Tau 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 (Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy) enables highly potent and conformal alpha-irradiation of solid tumors. The treatment is delivered by intra-tumor insertion of radium-224 impregnated seeds. When the radium decays, its short-lived offspring is released from the seed, and disperses while emitting high-energy alpha particles that destroy the tumor. Since the alpha-emitting atoms diffuse only a short distance, Alpha DaRT mainly affects the tumor, sparing the healthy tissue around it.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 4, 2020