CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tango Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on discovering and delivering the next generation of targeted cancer therapies, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed Series B financing of $60 million led by Boxer Capital of the Tavistock Group. Cormorant Asset Management and Casdin Capital are additional new investors in the round.
“We are very fortunate to have the support of this strong syndicate of cross-over investors as we bring our first targeted therapies based on the genetic concept of synthetic lethality to well-defined patient populations,” said Barbara Weber, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tango. “This financing will support our lead program into IND-enabling studies early next year as well as multiple other ongoing target and drug discovery efforts.”
Additionally, Tango announced leadership appointments of Daniella Beckman, Chief Financial Officer, John C. Ross, Vice President of Human Resources and Samy Tadros, Vice President of Business Development.
Daniella Beckman, CPA, brings more than 20 years of strategic, financial and operational experience to her role at Tango overseeing finance, investor relations and business development. She served as interim Chief Financial Officer for Tango since its inception, and prior to that, for other early-stage biotechnology companies, including Neon Therapeutics. Previously, Ms. Beckman was the Chief Financial Officer of Idenix Pharmaceuticals, where she oversaw finance, investor relations and IT until it was acquired by Merck in 2014. Prior to serving as CFO, Ms. Beckman served as corporate controller for Idenix. She previously held finance positions at Coley Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Beckman serves on the board of directors of Translate Bio. Ms. Beckman has a BA in business administration/accounting from Boston University and is a certified public accountant in Massachusetts.
John C. Ross, MS, MHRIR, joins Tango after serving as senior director of human resources for the surgical medical device business at Alcon, formerly a division of Novartis. Mr. Ross helped to facilitate the company’s spinoff from Novartis in 2019. Prior to Alcon, he served in multiple human resources leadership roles in Novartis Oncology and Novartis General Medicines in the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Ross also has held HR leadership roles at Google and Honeywell. Mr. Ross earned a BS in communications from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in human resources and industrial relations from the University of Illinois.
Samy Tadros, MS, MBA, joins Tango from Celgene, recently acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb, where he served as Executive Director, Business Development and Global Alliances. Mr. Tadros spent more than ten years at Celgene, leading multiple cross-functional teams and closing many important transactions for Celgene. Mr. Tadros' transactions spanned the spectrum from early research agreements to late stage development and commercialization deals. Before joining Celgene, Mr. Tadros worked at Charles River Labs and Schering-Plough. Mr. Tadros has a BS in biochemistry from Concordia University, an MS from the Temple University School of Pharmacy and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
“We’re thrilled Daniella has agreed to join our team as CFO and to welcome John and Samy into these key leadership roles,” added Dr. Weber. “Insights from all three industry leaders will be invaluable as we advance our pipeline of next-generation targeted cancer therapies and bring novel therapies to patients.”
About Tango Therapeutics
Tango Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to discovering novel drug targets and delivering the next generation of targeted therapies to people with cancer. Using an approach that starts and ends with patients, Tango leverages the genetic principle of synthetic lethality to discover and develop therapies that take aim at driver genes in cancer. The company is focused on three core areas: counteracting tumor suppressor gene loss, reversing the ability of cancer cells to evade the immune system and identifying novel combinations that will be more effective than single agent therapy. Tango was launched in 2017 with a $55 million Series A investment from Third Rock Ventures and announced a strategic collaboration with Gilead Sciences in November 2018 with a $50 million upfront payment. For more information, please visit www.tangotx.com.
