The CNS disease drug developer has raised funding in a GV-backed round just four months after it emerged from UT Southwestern with $30m.
Taysha Gene Therapies, a US-based gene therapy developer exploiting University of Texas (UT) Southwestern research, completed a $95m series B round on Wednesday backed by GV, a corporate venture capital subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet.
Investment and financial services group Fidelity Management & Research led the round, which included Invus, Casdin Capital, Franklin Templeton, Octagon Capital and Perceptive Advisors.
The round was filled out by Sands Capital, ArrowMark Partners,Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, PBM Capital, Nolan Capital and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
Taysha is working on adeno-associated virus-based gene therapies to treat monogenic diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), and has 17 product candidates in its pipeline.
The company launched in April this year with $30m from a seed round co-led by founding investors PBM Capital and Nolan Capital. It was formed in partnership with UT Southwestern Medical Center’s gene therapy program and department of paediatrics.
The series B funds will support the progression of Taysha’s first candidates into clinical trials in addition to the submission of four investigational new drug applications by the end of 2021 and construction of a commercial-scale production plant.
Sean Nolan, Taysha’s chairman, said: “We have brought together experts in gene therapy with leading healthcare and institutional investors to create a company that is uniquely positioned to advance the development of potentially curative gene therapies for CNS disease in rare and large patient populations.
“We believe this financing provides significant validation of our corporate strategy and will enable us to continue to rapidly translate programs from preclinical development into the clinic.”
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
