Pathios Therapeutics Raises £20M to Target a New Class of Tumour Proteins

Pathios Therapeutics, the Oxford-based drug discovery company, has raised £20.1 million to advance its cancer drug pipeline. The round includes investment from Brandon Capital Partners, Bristol-Myers Squibb — whose participation as a strategic investor reflects deep pharma interest in the target — and venture capital firm Canaan Partners.

Pathios was founded to exploit a specific scientific opportunity: the role of G protein-coupled receptor GPR65 in tumour biology. GPR65 is a proton-sensing receptor that becomes activated in the acidic microenvironment characteristic of solid tumours. The receptor appears to play a significant role in shaping how tumours evade the immune system, making it an attractive target for cancer immunotherapy approaches.

The company is developing a pipeline of GPR65 modulators — drugs designed to interfere with the receptor’s activity in the tumour microenvironment — with the aim of resensitising tumours to immune attack and improving outcomes for patients who do not respond to existing immunotherapy drugs. If successful, this approach could be complementary to PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors, the current standard of care in many cancers.

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s involvement is significant. The pharma giant is itself a leader in cancer immunotherapy through its Opdivo franchise and has an obvious strategic interest in next-generation targets that could extend or enhance the efficacy of checkpoint blockade.

The £20 million raise will fund the company through preclinical development and into its first clinical programmes, advancing the most promising GPR65 modulator candidates towards IND filing and first-in-human studies.