Circle Pharma Raises $92.5M for Cancer Drugs

Circle Pharma has raised $92.5 million to move its lead oncology programme toward clinical testing.

What happened

The oversubscribed Series E was led by The Column Group, with Nextech Invest, RA Capital, Euclidean Capital and Eli Lilly participating.

The company's lead programme, CID-165, is an oral macrocyclic cyclin D1 inhibitor expected to enter clinical development for ER-positive breast cancer.

Why it matters

Macrocycles can potentially reach protein interactions that are difficult for conventional small molecules to target.

If that approach works, it could open drug classes that have historically been hard to address with oral therapies.

The bigger picture

Biotech investors are continuing to fund platform companies when there is a clear path from novel chemistry into a specific clinical programme.

Circle's financing reflects that balance: the platform may support multiple future drugs, but the near-term value will depend on whether its first candidate performs well in human studies.