Padlock Therapeutics, a US-based biotechnology company backed by pharmaceutical firms Johnson & Johnson and Merck, has secured $23m in series A funding.
Venture capital firm Atlas Venture led the round, which was also backed by MS Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Merck’s prescription medicines division, as well as Johnson & Johnson’s corporate venturing subsidiary Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, and VC firm Index Ventures.
Founded in January this year and incubated in Atlas Venture’s seed programme, Padlock is developing treatments for autoimmune diseases. It will use the funding to further research protein-arginine deiminases (PAD) for autoimmune disease while also advancing its therapeutics pipeline.
Nilesh Kumar, director of MS Ventures, said: “With this financing, Padlock is poised to be the defining PAD company, using its key insights in PAD biology to address several autoimmune diseases.
“We are pleased to support Padlock’s efforts against these promising and as yet undrugged targets.”