On July 14, 2021 Kriya Therapeutics, Inc., a fully integrated platform company pioneering novel technologies and therapeutics in gene therapy, reported the closing of a $100 Million Series B financing to support its mission of transforming the design, development and manufacturing of gene therapies (Press release, Kriya Therapeutics, JUL 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234584835]).

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The financing was led by Patient Square Capital, with participation from new investors Woodline Partners LP, CAM Capital, Hongkou, Alumni Ventures and others. All existing institutional investors also participated in this round, including QVT, Dexcel Pharma, Foresite Capital, Bluebird Ventures, Transhuman Capital, Narya Capital, Amplo and JDRF T1D Fund. Proceeds from the financing will be used to further develop Kriya’s core technology platforms, expand its therapeutic pipeline and advance its current programs in metabolic disease, ophthalmology and oncology.

"In recent years we have seen the promise of gene therapy become a reality for the treatment of a number of devastating diseases. However, the field has been constrained by critical limitations in manufacturing technology, vector design capabilities and cost," said Shankar Ramaswamy, M.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kriya Therapeutics. "Kriya was formed with the mission of revolutionizing how gene therapies are designed, developed and produced by fully integrating advanced manufacturing technologies, computational tools and development capabilities within a single company. With the support of our new and existing investors, we believe that Kriya is well positioned to deliver transformative improvements in cost, scale and efficiency that will help the gene therapy field achieve its full potential across a range of therapeutic areas."

Concurrent with the financing, Jim Momtazee, Managing Partner of Patient Square Capital, will join Kriya’s Board of Directors. Prior to Patient Square, Mr. Momtazee spent over 21 years at KKR, where he helped establish the firm’s health care industry group in 2001 and subsequently was head of the Americas Heath Care Investment Team for over 10 years. Mr. Momtazee has spent years on the board of directors of Jazz Pharmaceuticals, HCA, PRA Health Sciences and BridgeBio Pharma, among other companies, and more recently joined the board of directors of Apollo Therapeutics.

"We believe that gene therapy will have transformative impact on medicine over time, and companies that are able to integrate platform capabilities delivering better treatments, lower cost and broader applications of the technology are going to drive that innovation," said Mr. Momtazee. "With that vision, we are incredibly excited to partner with the management team at Kriya to bring multiple important medicines to patients."

By combining advances in computer science and vector biology, Kriya is developing its SIRVE (System for Intelligent Rational Vector Engineering) platform for de novo vector design, sequence modification and data analysis. SIRVE is deployed to advance Kriya’s internally discovered gene therapy programs and improve first-generation products, with a goal of reducing immunogenicity and improving expression and packaging efficiency. Kriya is also developing STRIPE (System to Realize Improved Production Efficiency), a proprietary high-efficiency manufacturing platform integrating advances in cell line technology and upstream and downstream process to achieve exponential reductions in production costs at scale. STRIPE is being developed at Kriya’s 51,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and can support simultaneous manufacturing of multiple products from early research through commercialization. The company’s full cGMP manufacturing infrastructure is expected to be online this year.

On July 14, 2021 Ribon Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing therapeutics targeting stress support pathways in cancer and inflammation, reported the closing of a $65 million financing (Press release, Ribon Therapeutics, JUL 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234584833]). The financing was led by Deerfield Management and U.S. Venture Partners, with support from new investors Avego BioScience Capital, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Monashee Investment Management and Peregrine Ventures, along with existing investors AbbVie Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, Euclidean Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Novartis Venture Fund, Osage University Partners, Takeda Ventures and The Column Group. Ribon will use the proceeds to support the clinical development of its novel precision medicine candidates.

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"We are excited to have this terrific group of new investors join our strong group of existing investors to enable Ribon to develop novel precision drugs targeting stress support pathways," said Victoria Richon, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Ribon Therapeutics. "The additional capital will enable the advancement of our lead programs, RBN-2397 in cancer and RBN-3143 in inflammation, through key clinical milestones as well as support additional drug discovery and validation from our proprietary BEACON+ platform. We look forward to realizing our mission to bring novel small molecule therapeutics to patients and families in need."

"Ribon is pioneering the development of first-in-class precision development candidates targeting stress support pathways in cancer and inflammation and has made notable progress advancing its lead candidates," said Cameron Wheeler, Ph.D., Partner, Deerfield Management and Board Director for Ribon Therapeutics. "This funding represents a commitment to the compelling science that marks the foundation of Ribon and we look forward to working with management on continued clinical, preclinical and platform discovery execution."

On July 14, 2021 Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) reported the acquisition of Protomer Technologies ("Protomer"), a private biotech company (Press release, Eli Lilly, JUL 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234584832]). Protomer’s proprietary peptide- and protein-engineering platform is used to identify and synthesize molecules that can sense glucose or other endogenous modulators of protein activity.

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The potential value of the transaction is over $1 billion, with successful achievement of future development and commercial milestones. Lilly previously led an equity investment in Protomer alongside the JDRF T1D Fund, providing Lilly with 14 percent ownership of the company. Lilly is acquiring the remainder of the stock of Protomer beyond its initial investment.

Founded in 2015 and based in Pasadena, California, Protomer is engineering next-generation protein therapeutics that can sense molecular activators in the body. The company’s proprietary chemical biology-based platform enables the development of therapeutic peptides and proteins with tunable activity that can be controlled using small molecules. Protomer has used this approach toward advancing a portfolio of therapeutic candidates, including glucose-responsive insulins that can sense sugar levels in the blood and automatically activate as needed throughout the day.

"Lilly has long strived to make life better for people living with diabetes and we have a continued determination to provide real solutions, including innovation in insulin therapy. Glucose-sensing insulin is the next frontier and has the potential to revolutionize the treatment and quality of life of people with diabetes by dramatically improving both therapeutic efficacy and safety of insulin therapy," said Ruth Gimeno, vice president, diabetes research and clinical investigation at Lilly. "Protomer’s glucose-sensing insulin program, based on its proprietary molecular engineering of protein sensors (MEPS) platform, is showing significant promise and Lilly is excited to enhance our diabetes pipeline with the company’s innovative technology."

"We are excited to join Lilly, a leader in diabetes therapies, and advance our science with their support to better serve the needs of patients. This transaction validates our team’s accomplishments, and we look forward to continuing our important work together with Lilly," said Alborz Mahdavi, CEO and founder of Protomer. "We have been supported by JDRF since our inception and working closely with one of the leading organizations in type 1 diabetes research has been invaluable for us. The Protomer team is excited to embark on the next chapter of our work at Lilly as we focus our efforts on advancing glucose-responsive insulins and accelerating the development of these next-generation protein therapeutics."

"This is a significant milestone for the T1D community and a key step to bring the promise of Protomer’s game-changing technology one step closer to the clinic," said Katie Ellias, managing director at the JDRF T1D Fund. "Our early support and investment in Protomer is emblematic of our Fund’s mission to help companies with novel science accelerate next generation life-changing therapies for people living with T1D. We are thrilled Protomer has found a home at Lilly, a company that shares our commitment to delivering solutions to the diabetes community."

This transaction will be reflected in Lilly’s reported results and financial guidance according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). There will be no change to Lilly’s 2021 non-GAAP earnings per share guidance as a result of this transaction.

Aquilo Partners, L.P. is acting as financial advisor and Morrison & Foerster LLP as legal advisor to Protomer. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as Lilly’s legal counsel.

On July 13, 2021 Evrys Bio, a biotech company developing Next Gen Antivirals, reported the company was awarded a $34.3 million contract from the Department of Defense (DOD) to develop a drug, simultaneously effective against multiple high-risk viral agents (Press release, Evrys Bio, JUL 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234644911]). The proposed drug intends to improve disease survival after exposure to one or more viruses from three families: alphaviruses, arenaviruses and filoviruses. Evrys Bio’s broad-spectrum antiviral technology is based on the discovery that certain human proteins, called sirtuins, normally defend the human (host) cell from being invaded by pathogens. The novel drug will target the human SIRT-2 protein.

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The DOD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chem Bio Technologies, Vaccines and Therapeutics Division executed an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement with Evrys for this effort. The milestone-based agreement anticipates five years of development from drug-prototype identification to proof-of-concept and regulatory filings.

"EVRYS stands for the Company’s vision to ultimately address every virus," said Lillian Chiang, PhD, CEO, Evrys Bio. "This DTRA collaboration addresses highly lethal viral infection and extends our pipeline that already includes developing products to treat pan-respiratory, pan-hepatic, and pan-opportunistic viral infections."

On July 13, 2021 Prime Medicine, a company delivering on the promise of Prime Editing to provide lifelong cures to patients, reported its launch with $315 million in financing (Press release, Prime Medicine, JUL 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234621403]).

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The financing comprised a $115 million Series A; based on the rapid progress of the science and the company, Prime Medicine expanded its syndicate support with a $200M Series B financing approximately nine months after the company began operations. Investors in the Series A included ARCH Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, GV, and Newpath Partners. The Series B included all Series A investors, plus Casdin Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Moore Strategic Ventures, Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), Redmile Group, Samsara BioCapital, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and a number of additional, unnamed life sciences investment funds.

"Prime Editing is a wonderful example of the revolution in genetic medicine that we are living through," said Robert Nelsen, co-founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. "When mature, gene editing technologies like this could totally change our conception of what’s possible in treating disease."

"This is an opportunity to take a giant step toward cures for a much wider range of diseases than previously possible," said Stephen Knight, MD, President and Managing Partner of F-Prime Capital.

The funds raised will be used to continue building the company, rapidly advance towards clinical indications, expand the capabilities of the platform, and to further enhance the exceptional promise of Prime Editing. By the end of 2021, Prime Medicine expects to employ more than 100 people full-time.

"Prime Editing represents an opportunity to do what no gene editing approach has yet been capable of – correcting nearly all types of pathogenic gene mutations, correcting multiple mutations at once, and bringing durable cures to patients across multiple disease areas, potentially with a single ‘once and done’ treatment approach," said David Schenkein, MD, General Partner at GV. "We are tremendously excited about the potential of this technology, and about the talented team at Prime working to bring it to patients."

Prime Editing is a next-generation gene editing technology that acts like a DNA word processor to "search and replace" disease-causing genetic sequences at their precise location in the genome, without resulting in double-strand DNA breaks that cause unwanted cellular changes. It is versatile, with the potential to address more than 90 percent of known disease-causing mutations, and works in a variety of dividing and non-dividing primary human cells, as well as in animals. Prime editing has been shown by multiple independent laboratories to make genome edits with high fidelity, making edits precisely at the desired location with minimal or no editing in other parts of the genome. Together, these features overcome several technical barriers attributed to earlier gene editing technologies.

"Prime Editing is a transformative technology that we believe will make a significant impact by addressing the fundamental causes of genetic disease," said Keith Gottesdiener, MD, CEO of Prime Medicine. "Since Prime began operations in the summer of 2020, we have continued to make great progress in advancing the performance of Prime Editing, which allowed us to close our Series B financing nine months later. We are operating from a position of financial strength, and look forward to further developing the technology and progressing our preclinical programs toward the clinic, with the hope that they may cure or halt the progression of genetic diseases for patients."