Accent Therapeutics has announced the successful completion of a $75m Series C financing round to progress the development of small molecule precision cancer therapies.

The round was spearheaded by Mirae Asset Capital Life Science and saw contributions from new investors including Mirae Asset Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

Current investors AbbVie Ventures, Atlas Venture, the Column Group, Droia Ventures, EcoR1 Capital, GV, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and Timefolio Capital were among others participating.

The funds will be used for early clinical development of Accent's leading drug candidates.

These include a DExH-Box Helicase 9 (DHX9) inhibitor and a kinesin family member 18A (KIF18A) inhibitor, with a focus on safety, pharmacokinetics and early efficacy studies.

Mirae Asset Capital Life Science managing director Naveen Krishnan will become part of Accent’s board of directors.

Accent's lead candidate, a DHX9 inhibitor, is aimed at treating cancers with significant unmet medical needs, such as those associated with breast cancer gene (BRCA) loss of function (breast and ovarian cancers) and mismatch repair deficiency (colorectal, endometrial and gastric cancers).

The company's second lead programme, a KIF18A inhibitor, has the potential to address a wide range of cancer indications with high unmet needs, including triple-negative breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

Accent Therapeutics CEO Shakti Narayan stated: “We are delighted to announce the backing of an exceptional investor syndicate [that shares] our commitment to advancing innovative therapies for patients with cancer.

“These additional resources position us well to file INDs [investigational new drug applications] this year for both our DHX9 and KIF18A programmes, and to rapidly progress them through early clinical development.”