Amid an action-packed Thursday, another biotech launched to take on the ever-popular landscape of autoimmune drug development. And the new Boston-area biotech comes from a repeat creator: Paragon Therapeutics, which has formed Apogee, Spyre and Oruka.
Named Jade Biosciences, the new Waltham, MA-based startup has $80 million in funds from Fairmount, Venrock, Deep Track Capital and other investors to create targeted biologics for undisclosed inflammation and immunology indications. The field has been one of the most attractive areas for biotech investors in recent quarters as I&I conditions impact millions of people and existing medicines don’t work for everybody.
Jade’s only named executive so far is chief scientific officer Andrew King, who was previously in the same role at Novartis-acquired kidney disease drug developer Chinook Therapeutics. Prior to that, he was executive VP at BioAge Labs and has also held roles at Ardelyx, AbbVie and Abbott.
On its website, Jade describes the pipeline as “discovery-stage assets from Paragon.” The Thursday unveiling was light on details, but if Paragon’s past spinouts provide any signals, then there’s a chance Jade makes a quick run to the public markets to fund its pipeline.
Apogee went public last July via an initial public offering and raised one of the largest follow-on offerings so far this year with a $483 million raise in March. It has programs in atopic dermatitis, asthma and COPD. Spyre went through a reverse merger last year and has done multiple successive financings for its α4β7 and TL1A programs, among others. Oruka, meanwhile, went straight to a reverse merger this spring as it plans to take the Nasdaq spot of ARCA biopharma this quarter.