Epizyme raises $32 million through its Series B financing

Epizyme, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company translating key discoveries in the field of epigenetics into novel pharmaceutical agents, announced today the closing of a $32 million Series B financing led by new investor Bay City Capital (BCC). Joining BCC as new investors are Amgen Ventures and Astellas Venture Management. Existing investors MPM Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB), which co-led the Series A round of $14 million in February 2008, made follow-on investments. Coincident with the close of the Series B, Carl Goldfischer, MD, a BCC investment partner and managing director, joins the company’s Board of Directors.

“Rapid progress has been made at Epizyme in evolving a robust pipeline of first-in-class inhibitors of histone methyltransferase (HMT) enzymes involved in cancer,” said Epizyme chief executive officer Kazumi Shiosaki, PhD. “With the support of our new investors as well as our existing investors, we are now in a position to progress a number of these lead programs into proof-of-concept studies.”

Epigenetic enzymes have been identified for their critical roles in various cancers, and emerging data suggest the existence of epigenetic disease associations beyond oncology. Epizyme believes that the HMTs, in particular, represent novel therapeutic targets in major indications including cancer, inflammatory conditions, metabolic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to identifying novel small molecule HMT inhibitors for various cancers, Epizyme is developing an integrated platform that enables broad and efficient prosecution of the “HMTome” for its potential value across the therapeutic spectrum.

“We believe Epizyme's innovative approach to drugging HMTs and the experience of an exceptional group of founders and scientists can be leveraged to identify and develop novel therapies for multiple disorders characterized by significant unmet medical need,” said Dr. Goldfischer.