BlossomHill Therapeutics has secured $100m in a Series B financing round, a significant move to progress the development of its programmes targeting cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Colt Ventures headed the funding round, which saw contributions from a mix of new and current investors.

The investors included OrbiMed, Cormorant Asset Management, Vivo Capital, Hercules BioVentures Partners and Plaisance Capital Management.

This latest financial injection increases the total capital raised by BlossomHill to $173m.

The company plans to utilise the proceeds to progress its multiple in-house discovery and development programmes in high-need areas in cancer and autoimmune diseases into clinical trials.

BlossomHill Therapeutics president and CEO Jean Cui stated: “We appreciate the strong support from our new and existing investors in this round of financing.

“This will be a pivotal year for BlossomHill as we move our first two oncology programmes into Phase I clinical trials, advance several programmes forward to IND [investigational new drug]-enabling studies, and continue to build our already very deep pipeline of oncology and autoimmune discovery programmes.”

Colt Ventures general partner Sundeep Agrawal and Vivo Capital principal Timothy Stubbs will join the board of BlossomHill.

BlossomHill focuses on meeting medical needs in oncology and autoimmune diseases through its small-molecule drug design and development.

Its pipeline of candidates targets a range of diseases, with a drug design process that begins with a thorough understanding of the science behind each.

Cormorant Asset Management founder Bihua Chen stated: “We are excited to continue to support BlossomHill Therapeutics’ creative, trailblazing drug development team in its mission of bringing potentially best-in-class drug treatment to meaningfully improve patients' lives.”