Volastra Therapeutics, a clinical stage cancer biotechnology company focused on exploiting chromosomal instability (CIN), announced completion of the in-license of Amgen’s sovilnesib (AMG650), an oral, first-in-class small molecule inhibitor of KIF18A.

The company has also closed a $60 million Series A financing led by founding investors Polaris Partners and ARCH Venture Partners alongside Eli Lilly and Company. Also participating were Droia Ventures, Catalio Capital Management, Vida Ventures, Cornell University, and Meyers Ventures LLC, an affiliate of Ocean Road Advisors.

Under the terms of the licensing agreement, Volastra receives an exclusive worldwide license (ex-China) to develop and commercialize sovilnesib. In return, Amgen receives an upfront mix of cash and equity, as well as downstream milestones and royalties.

The drug is currently in Phase 1 for the treatment of platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer and other solid tumors with TP53 mutations. The FDA previously granted sovilnesib fast-track designation in platinum-resistant high grade serous ovarian cancer, underscoring the high unmet need in this population.

“We are excited to add sovilnesib to our growing pipeline of CIN-targeted therapeutics which includes our own KIF18A inhibitor, VLS-1488,” said Charles Hugh-Jones, CEO at Volastra.

Volastra will work to advance clinical development of both sovilnesib and VLS-1488 in 2023.

“Our focus is helping patients in critical need of new treatment options,” said Scott Drutman, Chief Medical Officer. “In-licensing sovilnesib broadens our options to accelerate development of therapies against a promising new target.”

In addition to a growing clinical pipeline, Volastra recently announced a multi-year, up to $1.1 billion collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to drive drug discovery using CIN-based synthetic lethality approaches to induce tumor cell death.

To complement both clinical and discovery efforts, Volastra said that it has built a strong partnership with Microsoft to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for the high throughput histopathological identification of CIN.