Pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly co-led a $139m series B round for US-based gene therapy developer Jaguar Gene Therapy yesterday with healthcare investment firm Deerfield Management.
Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs also took part in the round, along with venture capital firm Arch Venture Partners and Nolan Capital, the family office for Jaguar chairman Sean P. Nolan.
Jaguar is working on gene therapies for a metabolic disorder known as galactosemia as well as for type 1 diabetes and a specific genetic cause of autism spectrum disorder.
The company is also majority owner of Axovia Therapeutics, which is developing a treatment for a life-threatening neurometabolic condition known as BBS1. It publicly launched in February this year with an undisclosed amount of series A funding from investors including Deerfield.
Andrew Adams, Eli Lilly’s vice-president of new therapeutic modalities, said: “We are excited to engage in Jaguar Gene Therapy’s endeavour to develop novel gene therapies, following the breaking science in this rapidly advancing field. With this investment, we hope Jaguar can accelerate the advancement of a diverse set of innovative medicines for patients.”
Kenneth L. Custer, head of corporate business development and Lilly New Ventures for Eli Lilly, has taken a board seat at Jaguar, as have Jonathan Leff and Jeff Greenwald from Deerfield.
Jaguar was founded in 2018 by CEO Sean Nolan and five other former members of the leadership team at AveXis, the gene therapy developer that floated in a $95m initial public offering in 2016.
