US-based biotechnology company Aeglea BioTherapeutics has closed a $12m series A round co-led by Lilly Ventures and Novartis Bioventures, corporate venturing subsidiaries of pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Novartis.
Biopharmaceutical firm KBI Biopharma also participated in the round as a strategic partner, and will assist the company with development and manufacturing. Founded in 2013. Aeglea aims to develop therapeutic enzymes for oncology that focus on amino acids.
Aeglea has obtained exclusive rights to intellectual property from The University of Texas at Austin for three engineered and optimised drug candidates that help to degrade amino acids and kill specific tumours.
Armen Shanafelt, co-founder of Lilly Ventures, and Henry Skinner, managing director at Novartis Bioventures, have joined Aeglea’s board in conjunction with the financing.
Shanafelt said: “These engineered human enzymes present a major advancement in targeting the amino acid dependency of tumours; in particular, those that exhibit genetic and epigenetic changes in amino acid metabolic pathways.
Aeglea has recognized that these cancer specific defects are unique therapeutic opportunities that can be exploited by therapeutically optimised enzymes that degrade the amino acid upon which the tumour critically relies.”