California-Based TwoStep Therapeutics Raises $62.5M in Funding

The round saw backers Insight Partners, Medical Excellence Capital, M Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, NFX, 2048 Ventures, and Stanford University.

The company will use the funding to advance its lead program TS-104 into Phase 1 clinical development, progress its radioligand program, and develop additional peptide conjugates.

About TwoStep Therapeutics

Founded by Caitlyn Miller, Jennifer Cochran, Carolyn Bertozzi and Ronald Levy, TwoStep Therapeutics is developing targeted cancer therapies using a polyspecific integrin-binding peptide (PIP). The peptide is designed to target five tumor-associated integrins found across a broad range of solid tumors.

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The approach aims to address the limitations of therapies that depend on a single tumor target which can vary between patients and even between cells within the same tumor.

Core offerings include:

• Multi-specific peptide-drug conjugates
• Radioligand therapies
• Polyspecific integrin-binding peptide technology
• Targeted cancer treatments

Leadership Comments

“This financing, together with FDA clearance of the IND, marks an important inflection point for TwoStep and positions us to advance TS-104, our lead peptide-drug conjugate, through Phase 1 clinical development in oncology. This trial will provide the first clinical evaluation of the multi-specific targeting approach at the heart of TwoStep and begin to assess its potential to broaden the reach of targeted therapies,” said Caitlyn Miller, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TwoStep Therapeutics.

TwoStep is addressing one of the central challenges in solid tumor drug development, identifying a targeting approach that can reach meaningful numbers of patients without relying on a single, uniformly expressed tumor target,” said Matias Porras Paniagua, PhD, Vice President at Insight Partners.

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