Biopharmaceutical company AnGes led a $61m series B round for US-based gene-editing technology developer Emendo Biotherapeutics on Wednesday.
The round included an undisclosed amount of convertible note financing provided by pharmaceutical firm Takeda’s investment arm, Takeda Ventures, in April 2019 which was converted to equity. Healthcare investment firm OrbiMed also invested, as did its OrbiMed Israel Partners offshoot.
Emendo’s technology platform, Omni, combines Crispr gene-editing with protein engineering to create drugs intended to treat disorders including severe congenital neutropenia, where the body has insufficient neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that fights off infection.
AnGes is working on its own gene-based medicines and is looking to partner Emendo on targeting specific disease indications. Emendo has not released firm details of its earlier funding but said it was launched in 2015 with funding from Takeda Ventures and OrbiMed.
David Baram, Emendo’s president and chief executive, said: “This financing provides a strong foundation from which we can accelerate our proprietary Omni gene editing platform towards a broad clinical pipeline for addressing devastating untreatable diseases.
“We are grateful for such strong support from so many high-quality investors and strategic partners including AnGes, OrbiMed Advisors, OrbiMed Israel Partners and Takeda Ventures who share our vision to translate this powerful science into transformative medicines.”
