The new year brings new beginnings. In the biopharma industry, that means the launch of some new companies taking aim at potentially developing therapies or, even potential cures, for diseases. Two new companies have hit the ground running – Ribon Therapeutics and Sana Biotechnology.
Based in Lexington, Mass., Ribon Therapeutics launched this week with $65 million in a Series B funding round and a focus on developing first-in-class therapeutics targeting novel enzyme families activated under cellular stress conditions. The new company intends to use the proceeds from the financing round to advance its lead programs, including small molecule monoPARP inhibitors, into the clinic.
MonoPARPS are regulators of stress responses that can enable cancer cells to survive, as well as evade detection, Ribon said. Because of new science that has linked the activity of monoPARPS to disease development, the company has developed a technology platform that will harness monoPARPS for the therapeutics. Ribon’s initial focus will be to use this technology in the area of oncology, but the company said the idea is relevant in a number of disease indications, including inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. The focus of Ribon’s lead program is on advancing the science of PARP7 inhibitors for the treatment of cancer, beginning with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.
Ribon will be helmed by Victoria Richon, who will serve as both president and chief executive officer. Prior to helming Ribon, Richon oversaw discovery and preclinical research in oncology at Sanofi. In a statement issued today, Richon said the company will apply its “expertise in drug discovery to develop novel and effective treatments for defined patient populations with limited therapeutic options.”
Financing for Ribon’s Series B was led by the Novartis Venture Fund, with participation from new investors JJDC and Celgene Corporation. It was also supported by The Column Group, Deerfield Management, U.S. Venture Partners, Osage University Partners, Takeda Ventures and Euclidean Capital.
On the other side of the country, Sana Biotechnology launched with a focus on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines for patients. The Seattle-based company was co-founded by Hans Bishop, the former CEO of Juno Therapeutics. Bishop will serve as executive chairman of the company’s board of directors.
Sana was spun out of Flagship Pioneering and has been supported by investments from ARCH Venture Partners & F-Prime Capital.
In its announcement, Sana said recent advances in science have made it possible to “reprogram cells in the body or replace damaged cells and tissues,” which can create a new class of medicines to treat a broad array of diseases. Sana’s core capabilities are being built around several areas, including “making cells at scale ex vivo to replace any damaged or missing cells in the body; in vivo delivery to specific cell types of any payload – including DNA, RNA, and proteins to reprogram cells; and immunology expertise to hide allogeneic cells.”
Sana Therapeutics will be led by Steve Harr, who is also a co-founder. Harr said that cell and gene engineering provide an opportunity to address the underlying causes of disease and deliver benefits that have not before been possible.
“There are challenges in making and delivering these kinds of medicines to patients, but also the opportunity to treat illnesses that today have few if any, options. Our goal with Sana is to bring together the people, technologies, and resources needed to address these challenges, changing both how we approach treating disease and what we expect as outcomes for patients,” Harr said in a statement.
Bishop said the company launches with a “portfolio of potential medicines and technologies” from scientific innovators that include Flagship Pioneering, Harvard University, the University of California San Francisco and the University of Washington School of Medicine.
