Metacrine, a US-based biotech developer focused on liver, gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases, raised $65m in a series C round yesterday that featured pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly.
Eli Lilly invested through its regional corporate venturing unit, Lilly Asia Ventures, and was joined by Alexandria Venture Investments, the venture capital arm of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Venrock Healthcare Partners led the round, which also featured Franklin Templeton Investments, Deerfield Management, Arrowmark Partners, Invus, Vivo Capital, Arch Venture Partners, VenBio, Polaris Partners, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and undisclosed investors.
Founded in 2015, Metacrine is working on treatments for liver, gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases. Its lead program is aimed at non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which causes fat to be deposited in the liver and eventually leads to irreparable damage that requires a transplant.
The company is also exploring treatments for diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
The series C funding will allow Metacrine to advance and expand its pipeline, and move its lead candidate, MET409, into a phase 1 trial later this month.
Metacrine has now raised $125m in total funding, according to its latest press release. In December 2017, Alexandria Venture Investments participated in a $22m series B round that was led by NEA and also featured Arch, Polaris and VenBio.