UK-based metabolic drug developer Sitryx completed a $30m series A round that included pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) yesterday.
SV Health Investors and Sofinnova Partners co-led the round, which also featured fellow venture capital firm Longwood Fund. The company revealed that it was seeded by SV Health, but did not disclose details of the amount of cash or when it was provided.
Sitryx is working on drugs that will regulate the metabolism of immune cells in order to treat conditions such as cancer and autoimmune diseases by either causing the cells to attack diseases or harming the growth of tumours.
Paul Peter Tak, formerly GSK’s chief immunology officer, is among the company’s co-founders, and it has licensed intellectual property including chemical matter from the corporate. Sitryx also took part in Immunology Network, GSK’s immunology collaboration scheme.
John Lepore, GSK’s senior vice-president of research, said: “Immunology is at the heart of GSK’s new approach to R&D. Through our Immunology Network, we believe the emerging field of immunometabolism that Sitryx is focusing on has the potential to bring new therapeutic opportunities to patients for a broad range of diseases including cancer.
“Our investment in Sitryx will allow us to access this exciting science through working closely with world-renowned academic scientists in an open collaborative way.”
