RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Bantam Pharmaceutical announced the completion of $25 million seed funding round, noting in a statement this week that the funds will be used to finalize ongoing activities ahead of submitting its lead program, BTM-3566, for an investigational new drug (ING) application in the first quarter of 2022.

The company also plans to raise additional funds ahead of beginning clinical trials, with fundraising for a Series A round beginning later this fall, said Michael Stocum, president and CEO of Bantam Pharmaceutical, in an interview with WRAL TechWire.  Stocum stated that the clinical studies could begin as soon as the second quarter of 2022.

The company recently established operations in Research Triangle Park and employs eight core team members, said Stocum, noting that the company uses external contract research organizations to conduct its research.

“We are very excited to call the Triangle home,” said Stocum.  “All of our team has worked in biotech and large pharmaceutical companies throughout our careers, including several of us who are former GSK employees, among other companies such as Merck and AstraZeneca.”

The company is targeting “selective modulation of mitochondrial dynamics in cancer,” according to its statement.

“Our scientific data suggests our molecule has very strong cancer-fighting properties and are excited to see the results we obtain from our upcoming human clinical trials,” said Stocum.

The seed funding round was co-led by existing investors, which includes Lionel Goldfrank the founder of American & Overseas Asset Services Corporation, who is also a board member of Bantam Pharmaceutical.  Goldfrank called the funding round a major milestone in a statement and said the company is moving to the next stage of development.

The company is not generating revenue, said Stocum, but is planning to raise additional funding. Existing investors are not local to the Triangle, and are high net worth individuals, Stocum said.

“As part of the current fund raising process, we expect to expand our group of investors and include typical investment groups for clinical development such as venture capital firms,” Stocum noted.

An executive profile available on the Bantam website notes that the company was founded in 2015 “when the predecessor program was
acquired for $6M and we have since leveraged $18M of seed investment over four years to discover and develop our clinical candidate BTM-3566.”