{"id":19312,"date":"2025-03-11T17:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T17:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mpower.maryland.edu\/?p=19312"},"modified":"2025-03-11T17:30:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T17:30:51","slug":"irazu-oncology-secures-bridge-funding-expands-leadership-team-and-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mpower.maryland.edu\/irazu-oncology-secures-bridge-funding-expands-leadership-team-and-facilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Irazu Oncology Secures Bridge Funding, Expands Leadership Team and Facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Published on<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.umventures.org\/news\/iraz%C3%BA-oncology-secures-bridge-funding-expands-leadership-team-and-facilities\">UM Ventures website<\/a><\/strong>   |   <strong>March 4, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irazuoncology.com\/\">Iraz\u00fa Oncology, LLC<\/a><\/strong>, a biotechnology company developing next-generation cancer immunotherapies, today announced the closing of bridge financing and key organizational developments, including the appointment of a Chief Medical Officer and expansion of its research facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The financing will accelerate investigational new drug (IND) -enabling studies for Iraz\u00fa&#8217;s lead candidate and support preparations for future clinical development. The company has appointed Mayukh Das, MBBS, as Chief Medical Officer and doubled its laboratory footprint at Connect Labs Baltimore (located in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.4mlk.com\/\">4MLK<\/a> <\/strong>within the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.umbiopark.com\/\">University of Maryland BioPark<\/a><\/strong> in Baltimore, MD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This is a transformative period for Iraz\u00fa as we prepare to advance our lead candidate into IND studies,&#8221; said Jeffrey Strovel, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Iraz\u00fa Oncology. &#8220;The additional capital and Dr. Das&#8217;s deep expertise in immunotherapy development significantly strengthen our ability to deliver on our mission of developing accessible cancer treatments.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Das brings extensive oncology drug development experience from leadership roles at global pharmaceutical companies. At Medimmune\/AstraZeneca, he built clinical teams while leading the development of 15 new molecular entities. Previously, he held senior positions at Eli Lilly &amp; Company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I am honored to join Iraz\u00fa Oncology at this pivotal moment,&#8221; said Dr. Das. &#8220;The team has developed one of the most versatile immunotherapy platforms that I have encountered. By combining potent immune responses with low-cost manufacturing, Iraz\u00fa&#8217;s Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMV) platform represents a creative approach to cancer immunotherapy.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iraz\u00fa Oncology recently initiated Series A fundraising to advance its lead drug candidate toward clinical trials. The funding will support the company&#8217;s IND application filing with the FDA and enable preparation for first-in-human clinical studies. The company is backed by the Wexford SciTech Fund, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/momentum.usmd.edu\/\">University System of Maryland Momentum Fund<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/umaryland.edu\">University of Maryland, Baltimore<\/a><\/strong>, Abell Foundation, TEDCO, and leading healthcare angel investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UM Ventures startup advances investigational new drug studies for cancer therapy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":19313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - 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