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Ajax Set To ‘Attack JAK’ In Myelofibrosis With $95m In Series C Cash

Will Advance Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Pipeline

 
• By Mandy Jackson

Ajax Therapeutics plans to take its type II JAK2 inhibitor into the clinic during the second half of 2024 with the aim of modifying disease in a way that first-generation type I inhibitors do not. 

Venture capital. Investor capital. 3d illustration
Ajax previously raised $48m in series A and B rounds • Source: Shutterstock

Ajax Therapeutics, Inc. is going after an old target in myelofibrosis and other myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) in a new way with its type II JAK2 inhibitor, AJ1-11095, which it will take into the clinic in the second half of 2024 now that it has closed a $95m series C venture capital round. The company aims to generate deeper and more durable responses in myelofibrosis than seen with type I inhibitors, such as Incyte Corporation’s blockbuster Jakafi (ruxolitinib).

Key Takeaways

  • Ajax raised $95m in series C venture capital to take its lead drug candidate, a type II JAK2 inhibitor, into a Phase I clinical trial in myelofibrosis

New York-based Ajax announced its series C financing on 13 May and said the US Food and Drug Administration cleared the investigational new drug (IND) application that will allow it to begin a Phase I clinical trial of AJ1-11095 in myelofibrosis patients whose disease has progressed after treatment with a type I JAK2 inhibitor, which may include Jakafi, Bristol Myers Squibb Company’s Inrebic (fedratinib),

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