Kriya Therapeutics, a US-based developer of gene therapies based on research at Stanford University, secured $80.5m in a series A round yesterday backed by pharmaceutical firm Dexcel Pharma.
QVT Financial, Foresite Capital, Bluebird Ventures, Narya Capital, Amplo, Asia Alpha, Transhuman Capital and private investor Paul Manning also contributed.
Kriya Therapeutics is working on gene therapies for conditions where the underlying biology is well-understood, targeting indications such as type 1 and 2 diabetes and severe obesity. The company hopes its products will be one-time treatments that can offer durable relief.
Kriya’s scientific co-founder is John Fraser Wright, professor of paediatrics in the Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine at Stanford University. Wright will serve as chief scientific adviser.
The company previously secured an undisclosed amount of seed capital in the fourth quarter of 2019 led by Transhuman Capital, it revealed in its series A announcement.
Shankar Ramaswamy, co-founder, chairman and chief executive of Kriya Therapeutics, said: “There have been numerous successful gene therapies focused on rare monogenic diseases in recent years. We see tremendous potential to expand the field and apply gene therapy to highly prevalent serious diseases.
“We are focused on designing gene therapies using algorithmic tools, scalable infrastructure, and proprietary technology to optimise the efficacy and durability of our treatments. We look forward to accelerating the development of our pipeline, platform technologies, and internal GMP manufacturing capability with the funds raised in this series A financing.”
