A new Australian biotech targeting hard-to-treat cancers with radioactive molecules has emerged from one of Melbourne's premier cancer centers with a modest but well-connected seed round behind it.
Skopos Bio, spun out of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, has raised A$12 million (US$8.3 million) from an investor group that includes Tenmile, the health investment platform backed by mining magnate Andrew Forrest and his wife Nicola. Tin Alley Ventures, linked to the University of Melbourne, and Yosemite, Reed Jobs' oncology-focused fund, also co-led the round, according to a Tenmile LinkedIn post made earlier this month.
The company is placing its bets on radiopharmaceuticals, a category of cancer treatment that's been catching fire in the oncology world lately. These therapies work by delivering targeted radiation directly to tumor cells, pairing diagnostic imaging with treatment in what's known as a theranostic approach. It's an area where large pharmaceutical companies have been writing checks at an accelerating clip.
Skopos plans to funnel the capital toward advancing its initial cancer treatments into human trials. The company's founder has indicated plans for first-in-human trials to begin in 2027.
Building on Peter Mac's PSMA foundation
The founding team brings serious academic credentials. Professor Michael Hofman, who directs the Prostate Theranostics and Imaging Centre of Excellence at Peter Mac, co-founded the venture alongside Associate Professors Mohammad Haskali and Luc Furic. All three maintain their clinical and research positions at the cancer center while building the company.
Hofman earned recognition as Australia's top nuclear medicine researcher for a three-year term beginning in 2024. His earlier work includes leading the proPSMA randomized trial, published in The Lancet in 2020, which demonstrated the superiority of PSMA PET/CT imaging in staging high-risk prostate cancer. Haskali serves as chief radiopharmaceutical scientist at Peter Mac. Furic heads the center's translational prostate cancer research.
The board chair position went to Jeevan Virk, who previously held a vice president role at Novartis leading strategy for radioligand therapy, a related treatment category.
Prostate cancer forms the initial focus, though Skopos has broader ambitions across cancers that have resisted conventional drug development. "The pipeline we're building at Skopos explores some of the most compelling targets we have in oncology," Hofman said in an October interview with Drug Discovery World.
A crowded and suddenly expensive field
The company is entering a radiopharmaceutical market that's gone from niche curiosity to acquisition target in a remarkably short window. Bristol Myers Squibb paid US$4.1 billion for RayzeBio, completing the acquisition in February 2024. AstraZeneca closed its purchase of Fusion Pharmaceuticals a few months later. Novartis already markets Pluvicto, a PSMA-targeted therapy that received initial FDA approval in 2022 for late-stage prostate cancer and recently gained expanded approval for earlier disease stages.
Australia-based Telix Pharmaceuticals, a more established player, has reported strong recent revenue figures and projected annual revenue exceeding US$1 billion, according to regulatory filings. Ratio Therapeutics, working on alpha-emitting programs, pulled in a US$70 million Series C last year.
Steve Burnell, managing director at Tenmile, characterized the Skopos funding as emblematic of efforts to strengthen Australia's health science commercialization infrastructure. The investor syndicate notably includes Yosemite, launched by Reed Jobs in 2023 with a specific focus on oncology ventures.
CB Insights listed the round at US$8.36 million on September 30, representing the company's total capital raised to date. The startup is currently housed at the Jumar Bioincubator in Melbourne and is recruiting for a chief operating officer position. EM Advisory advised the founders on spinout negotiations with Peter Mac and the seed investors, according to an October report from Consultancy.com.au.
Whether Skopos can carve out meaningful differentiation in an increasingly competitive field remains an open question. The company is building from Peter Mac's established foundation in PSMA-targeted approaches, but translating academic research into commercial therapies has tripped up plenty of well-funded ventures before. The timeline to human trials will offer an early indicator of whether the startup can maintain momentum beyond the seed stage.
