Clinical-stage private cancer biotech company Aucentra Therapeutics is tapping investors to raise up to $50 million in capital, having doubled the size of its funding round due to the interest in its pipeline of oral drug candidates for hard-to-treat cancers.

The company, founded in 2017 by Professor Shudong Wang from the University of South Australia, has commenced recruiting patients for a phase-two trial of its leading drug candidate, Auceliciclib, which inhibits the CDK4/6 enzymes.