Exon skipping newco Skyhawk launches with $8M

RNA exon skipping drug company Skyhawk Therapeutics Inc. (Waltham, Mass.) debuted Tuesday with $8 million in a seed financing led by Alexandria Venture Investments, family investors Tim Disney and the Duke of Bedford, and other undisclosed private investors. The company plans to begin clinical testing of its lead small molecule for cancer indications next year.

The company was co-founded by Executive Chairman William Haney, who is CEO of cancer company Dragonfly Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.), and CEO Kathleen McCarthy, who was a preclinical scientist at the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation and Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY)...