Enlaza Therapeutics, the first covalent biologic platform company, secures $100million in series A round funding. The financing will be used to further develop Enlaza’s proprietary covalent protein technologies and to support advancement of wholly owned pipeline programs to the clinic.
The financing was led by the Life Sciences group of J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Private Capital division, with participation from existing investors: Frazier Life Sciences, Avalon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Samsara BioCapital.
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The financing also includes new investors: Amgen Ventures, Regeneron Ventures, Bregua Corporation, Pappas Capital, and Alexandria Venture Investments. Concurrent with the financing, Stephen Squinto, Ph.D., Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of the Life Sciences group of J.P. Morgan Private Capital, was named to the Board of Directors.
Sergio Duron, Ph.D., CEO of Enlaza Therapeutics said, “We are thrilled to close this financing with a group of new and existing investors that share our vision of creating a novel, differentiated class of protein therapeutics in oncology and other therapeutic areas, This support will enable continued expansion of our covalent protein drug platform, establishment of a diversified pipeline that demonstrates the broad potential of this approach, and advancement of our lead assets toward clinical development.”
Stephen Squinto, CIO of Life Sciences group of J.P. Morgan Private Capital said, “Bringing covalency to the biologics market is an extremely valuable way to unlock the next generation of protein therapeutics that are safer and more tolerable and can be dosed more frequently with lower doses, We believe Enlaza’s platform is well positioned for many first-in-class and best-in-class opportunities and are excited to partner with this senior management team.”
The War-Lock platform has broad applications and produces therapeutic candidates with excellent drug-like properties. Protein drugs produced by the platform can be modified to incorporate various payloads and achieve specific delivery to target tissues with high fidelity.
Enlaza has generated further preclinical data for its oncology drug candidates supporting the covalent mechanism of action by demonstrating efficient tumor penetration coupled with rapid systemic clearance, high tumor retention, and low off-target liabilities. These data have enabled Enlaza to develop a high-value pipeline of covalent protein drugs.
About Enlaza Therapeutics
Enlaza Therapeutics is pioneering the field of covalent biologics. These novel classes of protein therapeutics deliver more efficacious and safer treatments for patients.
The company’s proprietary War-LockTM platform leverages leading synthetic biology technology for site-specific covalent coupling driven by drug binding. Enlaza is building a pipeline of first-in-class covalent biologics.
