At a glance
Publicly launched: 2025
Headquarters: Boston
Technology: Small-molecule drug development using chemical screening libraries to find novel binding pockets
Founders: Keith Flaherty and the shareholders of Scorpion Therapeutics
Funding or notable partners: $177 million in series A funding co-led by Omega Funds, Atlas Venture, Lightspeed Venture Partners, BVF Partners, and Cormorant Asset Management; partnerships with AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Pierre Fabre Laboratories
Antares Therapeutics’ story actually begins with another start-up: Scorpion Therapeutics. In 2020, Scorpion set out to develop phosphoinositide 3-kinase α (PI3Kα) inhibitors for cancer. It called the approach Precision Oncology 2.0 and soon brought on a deep bench of backers, including Atlas Venture and Omega Funds.
In 2025, Eli Lilly and Company bought the firm and its lead PI3Kα blocker for $2.5 billion. But Scorpion’s founders had other programs waiting in the wings. They built a new firm around that science and called it Antares Therapeutics, named for the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation.
