The Skolkovo Fund has made a decision to give a $3.6m grant to OncoTartis, the Russian Venture Company reports.

OncoTartis is a Russian start-up company, financed by the Bioprocess Capital Venture VC fund, created with participation of the Russian Venture Company (RVC).

OncoTartis reportedly occupies a unique position among the new wave of biopharmaceutical companies. The project unites six sub-projects, aimed at development of next gen medicines providing anti-tissue therapy. This approach enables destruction of not only initial tumor cells, but also of secondary metastatic cells, largely alleviating the problem of recidivating and medicine-resistant types of cancer.

Currently, the company’s portfolio includes a number of advanced compounds that have already demonstrated selective toxicity at certain tissues. The company is further improving the discovered compounds in order to choose one with the best physical-chemical features and the lowest selective toxicity. The company’s end goal is to obtain most promising candidates and develop them to the stage of pre-clinical and clinical trials.

The project is initially aimed at development of medicines for treating prostate and breast cancer, melanoma and leukemia. With the grant from the Skolkovo Fund the research program will be expanded through adding ovarian cancer. Support from Skolkovo will also help to shorten project timeframes and bring the project to a more mature stage.