Investors CHARM-ed as they take funding past $150m for Cambridge therapeutics company
New investors NEA (New Enterprise Associates) and SR One led the round alongside existing backers OrbiMed, F-Prime, NVIDIA and Khosla Ventures.
Based locally at Babraham Research Campus, CHARM has now raised more than $150m from its world-class backers and is advancing its lead menin inhibitor candidate towards clinical development in early 2026.
The inhibitor is said to overcome resistance mutations with the potential to deliver superior efficacy, durability and safety; clinical development is expected to start in Q1 of 2026.
CHARM's oncology leadership has simultaneously been strengthened with the appointment of former Syndax CEO Briggs Morrison as well as the highly experienced Kim Blackwell as non-executive directors.
AML is a rapidly progressing and aggressive blood cancer with poor prognosis for many patients. Menin inhibitors have recently emerged as a clinically-validated therapeutic class acting through restoration of normal gene regulation and triggering differentiation or death of cancer cells.
But first-generation therapies are limited by rapid emergence of resistance mutations in the menin protein, which reduce efficacy and lead to relapse and disease progression. Also, the efficacy of some first generation menin inhibitors may be limited by safety risks including QTc prolongation and poor pharmaceutical properties such as the potential for drug-drug interactions and requirement for high doses.
CHARM Therapeutics says it is pioneering a new generation of menin inhibitors designed to overcome these limitations. Using its proprietary protein-ligand co-folding platform DragonFold, CHARM says it has identified a development candidate that retains potency against all publicly described clinical resistance mutations, demonstrating robust tumour regression in preclinical models.
This molecule is predicted to be efficacious at low human doses without increase of QTc interval and does not inhibit enzymes responsible for drug-drug interactions, the company says.
Through the AI-enabled design of high-quality molecules CHARM aims to unlock the full potential of menin inhibition for AML patients and to deliver greater and more durable treatment responses.
Gary D. Glick, Executive Chair CHARM Therapeutics, said: “Securing funding from such a high-quality investor syndicate is a strong validation of our approach to overcoming menin inhibitor resistance. Current menin inhibitors show promise in AML treatment but are fundamentally limited by the rapid emergence of resistance mutations that cause treatment failure.
“Our next-generation inhibitors, discovered using our proprietary DragonFold AI platform, are specifically designed to overcome these resistance mutations and deliver the durable responses that patients need. This program represents a significant opportunity to transform outcomes for patients, and we look forward to initiating clinical development early next year.”