US-based inflammatory disease drug developer Quench Bio launched yesterday with $50m of series A funding from investors including Abbvie Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Abbvie.
The round was led by investment management firm RA Capital Management and also featured venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Arix Bioscience. The company was incubated and seeded by Atlas Venture in 2018.
Quench is developing treatments for serious inflammatory diseases that will work by inhibiting gasdermin D, a protein that creates lytic pores on the cell membrane, releasing inflammatory proteins and DNA.
The approach could be useful in a range of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
Samantha Truex, chief executive of Quench Bio, said: “Targeting gasdermin provides a unique therapeutic opportunity, as there are currently no marketed therapies inhibiting inflammatory cell death.
“Unlike approaches that target individual inflammasomes or cytokines, by targeting gasdermin, we aim to simultaneously inhibit multiple inflammatory cell death pathways that drive severe inflammatory diseases.”
Adam Houghton, head of AbbVie Ventures, has joined the company’s board of directors, which includes Arix investment director Jonathan Tobin, RA Capital managing director Josh Resnick and Bruce Booth, a partner at Atlas Venture, in conjunction with the round.
