A different take on protein degradation will enter human trials as Lycia Therapeutics, founded by Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, has refueled with $106.6 million.
The Series C, disclosed Monday morning, will fund lead programs in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The biotech is also still working with investor and partner Eli Lilly on up to five different targets in immunology and pain, a $1.6+ billion pact that was disclosed a few weeks before a $70 million Series B in the fall of 2021.
Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners led the Series C. Other investors in the round include new Lycia backers Janus Henderson Investors, Marshall Wace and Franklin Templeton, plus insiders Redmile Group, RTW Investments, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, Invus, Lilly and Alexandria Venture Investments. Versant Ventures founded the startup with Bertozzi and unveiled it in 2020.
Lycia is part of the growing field of protein degraders, which includes PROTACs, AbTACS or PROTABs, RIPTACs, ATTECs and others. There are also protein stabilizers.
At South San Francisco-based Lycia, the focus is on LYTACs, or lysosomal targeting chimeras, which aim to send extracellular proteins to the garbage bin.
“We’re basically clearing out from circulation these proteins or targets,” CEO Aetna Wun Trombley told Endpoints News. “So where there is data, in particular human data, to correlate the knockdown of that protein with disease pathogenicity, symptom improvement [and] disease improvement in patients, that’s where we really prioritize those programs.”
The CEO declined to disclose the specific autoimmune and inflammatory indications that Lycia is first targeting and when they plan to enter the clinic. Pending regulatory discussions, Lycia hopes to get into patients right away.
“The goal for the programs would be to generate early proof of activity in patients in a Phase 1b setting,” Trombley said.
The 40-employee biotech last summer boosted its C-suite with chief business officer Sofia Touami, who previously held the same post at Hexagon Bio and before that was a VP at Frontier Medicines, where she helped ink a protein degradation deal with AbbVie.