Raze Raises Start-up Funds

Raze Therapeutics has been launched to pursue a new class of oncology drugs that target mitochondrial one-carbon metabolism. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company’s scientific platform brings together discoveries from its founders Vamsi Mootha at Massachusetts General Hospital, Joshua D. Rabinowitz of Princeton University, and David Sabatini from the Whitehead Institute. The start-up has raised an initial $24 million from venture capital firms and the investment arms of Astellas Pharma, Merck KGaA, and Novartis. Raze will use the money to develop agents that interfere with key anabolic metabolism pathways involved in the growth, biomass accumulation, and survival of tumors.