Mission Bay Capital has backed a series B round for orphan diseases drug developer Glycomine, which also attracted Novo, Asahi Kasei Pharma and Chiesi.
US-based biotechnology developer Glycomine obtained $33m in a series B round on Wednesday backed by Mission Bay Capital, the venture capital arm of California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3).
Pharmaceutical firm Novo led the round, which also featured pharmaceutical companies Asahi Kasei Pharma and Chiesi, the latter participating through corporate venturing subsidiary Chiesi Ventures. Investment firm Sanderling Ventures also took part.
QB3 is a research and commercialisation institute spanning three University of California (UC) campuses – UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and UC Santa Cruz.
Founded in 2013, Glycomine is working on treatments for rare metabolism and protein misfolding disorders for which no therapy currently exists.
The company’s lead asset is aimed at a condition called PMM2-CDG, symptoms of which include liver disease, immune and nervous system disorders and episodes resembling strokes. It will use the money to advance the candidate into early-stage trials.
Peter McWilliams, currently acting chief executive of Glycomine, has been made permanent CEO in conjunction with the round. Kenneth Harrison, principal at Novo Ventures, will join the board of directors together with Chris Starr, co-founder of biotechnology producer BioMarin.
Chiesi Ventures previously backed a $12m series A round for Glycomine in 2016 that was led by Sanderling. A range of high net worth individiuals and patients of Glycomine also contributed to the round, having previously taken part in a seed round seemingly sized at $1m.
Harrison said: “Glycomine’s novel therapy offers great promise to address a critical unmet medical need. We believe that Glycomine’s approach has potential to directly address many of the most debilitating symptoms of PMM2-CDG.”
