Mereo BioPharma (NASDAQ:  MREO) is a publicly traded San Diego and London-based biotech developing and commercializing new therapies for oncology and rare disease.  The Mereo and Cancer Focus Fund partnership will evaluate Mereo’s lead anti-TIGIT therapeutic antibody candidate, etigilimab, in clear cell ovarian cancer, a rare cancer that accounts for approximately 5-10% of all ovarian carcinomas in North America.

KAHR is a private clinical stage company based in Israel developing innovative immune-recruitment cancer drugs that activate immune responses by converting cancer camouflage into beacons for the immune system to attack.  The Cancer Focus Fund investment will support a Phase 1/2 clinical study assessing KAHR’s first-in-class CD47x41BB targeting agent in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome and T-cell lymphoproliferative diseases.

Nectin Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing novel targeted immunotherapies that address resistance to approved immune oncology treatments.  The Cancer Focus Fund investment will support a Phase 1 clinical trial of Nectin’s PVR blocker, NTX1088, in cancer patients with locally advanced and metastatic solid tumors.