Lycia Therapeutics Completes $106.6 Million Series C Financing to Advance Pipeline of LYTAC Extracellular Protein Degraders to the Clinic
13 Mayo 2024 - 6:00AM
Lycia Therapeutics, Inc., a leader in extracellular protein
degradation, today announced the completion of an oversubscribed
$106.6 million Series C financing. Venrock Healthcare Capital
Partners led the round, with participation from new investors Janus
Henderson Investors, Marshall Wace and Franklin Templeton, and
existing investors Redmile Group, RTW Investments, Blue Owl
Healthcare Opportunities (formerly Cowen Healthcare Investments),
Invus, Eli Lilly and Company and Alexandria Venture Investments.
Lycia’s next-generation degradation approach leveraging
lysosomal targeting chimeras, or LYTACs, is designed to target the
untapped extracellular proteome, including transmembrane and
secreted proteins. Lycia has made notable progress advancing its
pipeline of LYTACs and will use the proceeds from the Series C
financing to advance its lead programs into the clinic for
autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Venrock and our other new investors
as we progress toward becoming a clinical stage company,” said
Aetna Wun Trombley, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer.
“We’ve built and continue to enhance the LYTAC platform to access a
wide range of extracellular proteins, including high expressing and
high turnover targets. This unique flexibility has already yielded
a deep, diverse pipeline of LYTAC degraders aimed at depleting
difficult-to-drug targets, including many that, to date, have been
intractable.”
Venrock Partner Andrew Gottesdiener, who will join Lycia’s Board
of Directors in connection with the Series C financing, commented,
“Lycia is well aligned with our investment philosophy. They are
developing highly innovative medicines that we believe have the
potential to deliver meaningful human health advances, and they are
backed by a seasoned team who can rapidly execute on the vision and
opportunity. I look forward to working with the Lycia team as they
advance LYTAC degraders to clinical proof of activity in patients
with immune-inflammatory diseases.”
Lycia will continue to strategically build its team and
capabilities in alignment with its pending transition toward the
clinic. The company has expanded its leadership team with several
key hires, including Jian Cao, Ph.D., RAC, as VP of Chemistry,
Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC); Matthew Holdren, Ph.D., DABT as
VP, Head of Nonclinical Development; Larry Rozsnyai, Ph.D., J.D.,
as VP of Intellectual Property; Nadia Tchao, M.D., as Head of
Translational Medicine/Early Development; and Sofia Touami, Ph.D.,
as Chief Business Officer.
About Lycia TherapeuticsHeadquartered in South
San Francisco, Lycia Therapeutics is a biotechnology company using
its proprietary lysosomal targeting chimeras (LYTACs) platform to
discover and develop first-in-class therapeutics that degrade
extracellular and membrane-bound proteins that drive a wide range
of difficult-to-treat diseases, including autoimmune and
inflammatory diseases. Lycia was established in 2019 when it was
launched from Versant Ventures’ Inception Sciences Discovery Engine
in collaboration with academic founder and Nobel Laureate Carolyn
Bertozzi, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and HHMI investigator at
Stanford University. For more information, please visit
www.lyciatx.com.
Media Inquiries:Liz
Meloneliz@melonecomm.com617-256-6622
Company Inquiries:info@lyciatx.com