Max Planck spinout Quench Bio will wind down after its target proved undruggable and will return capital to investors, which include AbbVie Ventures.
Quench Bio, a US-based inflammatory disease drug developer exploiting research at several Max Planck institutes and Lead Discovery Center (LDC), announced yesterday that it was shutting down.
The spinout took the decision after its target proved undruggable. It will return capital to investors and, in due course, publish key findings into the gasdermin D protein – which plays a role in inflammatory diseases but the mechanisms of which are not yet fully understood.
Quench Bio also held an auction for its assets, won by an as-yet-undisclosed party. As part of this deal, a “substantial” donation will be made to the Boston location of Life Science Cares, which is working to end poverty.
Quench Bio was hoping to develop therapies that inhibit gasdermin D and had set its sights on conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
Gasdermin D was discovered by a team of researchers from Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology and LDC.
Quench was was co-founded and seeded by Atlas Venture and Arix Bioscience in 2018.
In January 2020, Atlas and Arix both returned for a $50m series A round that was led by RA Capital Management and also included AbbVie Ventures, the corporate venturing division of pharmaceutical firm AbbVie.
