CAMBRIDGE, England, January 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Taiho Ventures First Investment in Europe  

STORM Therapeutics, the leading drug discovery company focused on small molecule therapies modulating RNA modifying enzymes, today announced that it has raised an additional £4 million of funding from Taiho Ventures, LLC the strategic corporate venture capital arm of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. This is an addition to the £12 million Series A Financing announced in June 2016.  Taiho Ventures joins the existing blue chip investor syndicate of Merck Ventures, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Pfizer Venture Investments and Touchstone Innovations with an equal size of investment. Sakae Asanuma, President of Taiho Ventures, joins STORM Therapeutics' Board of Directors.

Following encouraging progress to date, the financing will enable STORM Therapeutics to expand and accelerate its pipeline, pursue emerging therapeutic opportunities, and build a broader drug discovery platform encompassing new drug targets from additional academic collaborators and its scientific founders.

Commenting on the fundraising, Keith Blundy, CEO of STORM Therapeutics, said: "We are pleased to welcome Taiho Ventures to our existing investor syndicate.  This extended investment represents further validation and support of our strategy to harness the power of RNA epigenetics as a new area of important biology. As the first company tackling disease through modulating RNA modifying enzymes, we believe we are well positioned to build a world leading company."

Sakae Asanuma, President of Taiho Ventures, added: "We are excited to join this experienced management team and investor syndicate to help STORM Therapeutics fulfil its ambition to become the leading therapeutics company in RNA epigenetic modulation.  Our strategy is to invest globally in companies that discover and develop innovative first-in-class therapeutic products that demonstrate a clear potential to benefit cancer patients, and as our first investment in Europe we believe that STORM's innovative approach has the potential to significantly improve the way the world treats cancer."

NOTES TO EDITORS 

About STORM Therapeutics 

STORM Therapeutics is a University of Cambridge spin-out, translating the ground breaking work of Professors Tony Kouzarides and Eric Miska in RNA epigenetics into the discovery of first-in-class drugs in oncology and other diseases. It is the leading company currently tackling disease through modulating RNA modifying enzymes and is developing a unique platform to address these enzyme classes, including RNA methyltransferases. STORM Therapeutics is backed by blue chip investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, Merck Ventures, Pfizer Ventures and Touchstone Innovations, who share the founders' ambitions to build a world-leading company in the field. The company raised its series A funding in June 2016 and occupies modern, well-equipped laboratories on the Babraham Research Campus near Cambridge, UK. For more information, please visit

http://www.stormtherapeutics.com/

About Taiho Ventures, LLC 

Taiho Ventures, LLC is the strategic corporate venture capital arm of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a Japanese specialty pharma focusing on oncology, allergy and immunology, and urology. Taiho Ventures is looking at early stage preclinical oncology companies as well as platform technology companies for our core therapeutic areas. Taiho Ventures will review the wide variety of modalities for both biologics and small molecules mainly in US and European countries. The company will also consider the option-type of investments and spin-outs, in addition to the pure equity investments.

For more information about Taiho Ventures, please visit http://www.taihoventures.com/

About Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Japan) 

Taiho Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. (https://www.otsuka.com/en/), is an R&D-driven specialty pharma focusing on the three fields of oncology, allergy and immunology, and urology. Its corporate philosophy takes the form of a pledge: "We strive to improve human health and contribute to a society enriched by smiles." In the field of oncology in particular, Taiho Pharmaceutical is known as a leading company in Japan for developing innovative medicines for the treatment of cancer, a reputation that is rapidly expanding through their extensive global R&D efforts and more recently the establishment of commercial operations in the US. In areas other than oncology, as well, the company creates and markets quality products that effectively treat medical conditions and can help improve people's quality of life. Always putting customers first, Taiho Pharmaceutical also aims to offer consumer healthcare products that support people's efforts to lead fulfilling and rewarding lives.

For more information about Taiho Pharmaceutical, please visit https://www.taiho.co.jp/en/.

SOURCE STORM Therapeutics