Rock Springs Capital

Rock Springs Capital is an investment company based in Baltimore, Maryland, established in 2013. It specializes in the healthcare and biotechnology sectors, offering advisory services that focus on managing security portfolios and providing portfolio management solutions for businesses and institutional clients. The firm aims to assist clients in optimizing their investment strategies and achieving their financial objectives through its comprehensive management services.

Kris Jenner Ph.D

Partner

Graham Morgan McPhail

Limited Partner and Member

Past deals in Life Science

Gossamer Bio

Post in 2022
Gossamer Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego that focuses on the discovery and development of innovative therapeutic products for unmet medical needs. Founded by former executives from Receptos, the company aims to leverage a strong in-licensing strategy and a team with extensive experience in immunology, inflammation, fibrosis, and oncology. Gossamer Bio's pipeline includes several promising candidates: Seralutinib, which targets pulmonary arterial hypertension; GB004, aimed at treating inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease; GB1275, designed for various oncology indications; and GB001, intended for moderate-to-severe eosinophilic asthma. Through these efforts, Gossamer Bio seeks to improve patient outcomes in critical therapeutic areas.

Caris Life Sciences

Private Equity Round in 2021
Caris Life Sciences is a molecular science and technology company. They develop and deliver solutions for healthcare and improve cancer patient outcomes. Through molecular profiling and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. They create the clinical-genomic databases and cognitive computing needed to analyze and unravel the molecular complexity of the disease.

Sagimet Biosciences

Venture Round in 2021
Sagimet Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapeutics to treat important diseases such as the liver disease NASH and specific cancers, with focus on targeting dysfunctional metabolic pathways. The company has unique expertise in FASN biology and has created a pipeline of proprietary FASN inhibitors.

Flame Biosciences

Venture Round in 2020
Flame Biosciences is a clinical-stage company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of transformative therapies for cancer and other inflammatory diseases.

ESCAPE Bio

Venture Round in 2020
Escape Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops small molecule drugs intended to treat neurodegenerative diseases. The company is developing therapeutics for the novel, precisely therapies for genetic neurodegenerative diseases. Escape Bio's pipeline includes candidates targeting known genetic drivers of multiple diseases, including ESB1609, a small molecule S1P5 receptor agonist for the treatment of CNS lysosomal storage disorders and ESB5070, a small molecule kinase inhibitor for Parkinson’s disease patients who have an LRRK2 G2019S variant and an Alzheimer's disease program targeting ApoE4. E-scape Bio was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.

Thrive Earlier Detection

Series B in 2020
Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. is a healthcare company that specializes in developing advanced blood testing technologies for early cancer detection. Its flagship product, CancerSEEK, is a liquid biopsy test that analyzes genomic mutations in tumor DNA and protein markers in plasma, allowing for the identification of various cancers at their nascent stages, often before symptoms manifest. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an additional office in Baltimore, Maryland, Thrive aims to integrate cancer screening into standard medical practice. The company leverages real-world data and machine learning to enhance the accuracy of cancer detection, facilitate follow-up testing, and streamline the transition to oncological care. Thrive operates as a subsidiary of Exact Sciences Corporation and has received investments from notable firms including Third Rock Ventures and Section 32.

Spruce Biosciences

Series B in 2020
Spruce Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for rare diseases that target the endocrine system. The company is driven by a mission to develop meaningful therapies for patients with rare diseases affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal. They are committed to transforming the quality of life for patients who have been underserved by scientific innovation.

PhaseBio

Series D in 2018
PhaseBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to developing new and improved drugs, with an initial focus on endocrine and metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease. The company uses its proprietary recombinant biopolymers called elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) to improve the stability, bioavailability, activity, and ease of administration of proteins and peptides, with the goal of achieving greater potency, fewer side effects, and better patient compliance. Efficient production in E. coli ensures a low cost of goods. PhaseBio’s lead drug candidate, PB1023, is currently being evaluated in a phase 2b clinical trial for the treatment of hyperglycemia associated with type 2 diabetes, with potential for future use in the treatment of obesity. Our second drug candidate, Vasomera, is currently being evaluated in phase 1 clinical trial and has exciting potential for use in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and heart failure. Its third program, Insumera, basal insulin based on native human insulin, will enter clinical trials in early 2013. PhaseBio is based in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

Kaleido BioSciences

Series C in 2018
Kaleido Biosciences is a clinical-stage healthcare company with a differentiated, chemistry-driven approach to leveraging the potential of the microbiome organ to treat disease and improve human health. The Company has built a human-centric proprietary product platform to enable the rapid and cost-efficient discovery and development of novel Microbiome Metabolic Therapies (MMT™). MMTs are designed to modulate the metabolic output and profile of the microbiome by driving the function and distribution of the organ’s existing microbes. Kaleido is advancing a broad pipeline of MMT candidates with the potential to address a variety of diseases and conditions with significant unmet patient needs.

Synlogic

Series C in 2017
Synlogic is a biotechnology company that develops synthetic biotic medicines to perform metabolic functions to treat diseases. The company's lead programs target patients with rare genetic metabolic diseases, including phenylketonuria and secondary hyperoxaluria. Synlogic is also hard at work on synthetic biotics to address more prevalent conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, and other metabolic conditions.

Spero Therapeutics

Series C in 2017
Spero Therapeutics is developing first in class therapeutics for treatment of gram-negative infections. The company leverages a top-tier chemistry and microbiology team, an efficient virtual approach to drug development, and a focus on high potential, novel mechanisms to fill the unmet need for early stage therapeutics targeting serious bacterial infections. Its lead program addresses a novel target driving virulence and persistence of pseudomonas aeruginosa infections and other gram-negative pathogens.

Translate Bio

Series B in 2015
Translate Bio is a biotechnology company that in biotechnology, RNA therapeutics, and rare diseases. Translate Bio is a therapeutics company developing a new class of potentially transformative medicines to treat diseases caused by protein or gene dysfunction.

Adaptive Biotechnologies

Series F in 2015
Adaptive Biotechnologies is a commercial-stage company focused on advancing immune-driven medicine by leveraging the biology of the adaptive immune system for disease diagnosis and treatment. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company offers a range of products and services, including the immunoSEQ research service and kit, which aids in research and the discovery of diagnostic signals. Its FDA-authorized clonoSEQ diagnostic test is designed for the detection and monitoring of minimal residual disease in patients with specific blood cancers. Additionally, Adaptive Biotechnologies is developing a pipeline of clinical products aimed at diagnosing and treating cancer, autoimmune conditions, and infectious diseases. The company has formed strategic collaborations with notable partners, including Genentech for neoantigen-directed T cell therapies, Microsoft for early disease detection tests from blood samples, and Amgen for therapeutic development related to COVID-19.

Merus

Series C in 2015
Merus B.V., a biomedical company, engages in the discovery and development of antibody-based biopharmaceuticals. It develops Oligoclonics technology that offers a class of human antibodies called Oligoclonics. Oligoclonics is a concept whereby a mixture of various human therapeutic antibodies, directed to a common antigen are produced from a single cell clone.

aTyr Pharma

Series E in 2015
aTyr Pharma is a biotherapeutics company based in San Diego, California, specializing in the discovery and development of innovative medicines utilizing novel immunological pathways. The company focuses primarily on ATYR1923, a clinical-stage fusion protein designed to down-regulate immune engagement in interstitial lung diseases by binding to the neuropilin-2 receptor. This candidate is currently undergoing Phase 1b/2a clinical trials. aTyr Pharma has established a strong intellectual property portfolio centered around Physiocrine-based compositions and therapeutic applications, particularly in immunomodulation disorders related to inflammation and immunity. Additionally, the company has formed collaborations with several institutions, including the University of Nebraska Medical Center, CSL Behring, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Medical University of South Carolina, to advance its research and development efforts. Founded in 2005 by a prominent scientist from The Scripps Research Institute, aTyr is supported by leading life sciences investors.

Sagimet Biosciences

Series D in 2014
Sagimet Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapeutics to treat important diseases such as the liver disease NASH and specific cancers, with focus on targeting dysfunctional metabolic pathways. The company has unique expertise in FASN biology and has created a pipeline of proprietary FASN inhibitors.

Ascendis Pharma

Series D in 2014
Ascendis Pharma has built a high value pipeline with the aim of changing clinical treatment paradigms. Using our innovative TransCon prodrug technology platform, we continue to identify new opportunities addressing areas of high unmet medical need. TransCon is applicable to all drug classes, and is currently being used to create superior prodrugs of proteins, peptides and small molecules. Depending on choice of TransCon Carrier, either systemic or localized drug exposure is achieved, while dosing frequency is determined by the choice of TransCon Linker. The prodrugs are new chemical entities with new patent life. Product development process is de-risked, as the prodrugs release the active component in its native and unmodified form, maintaining the original drug’s well known mode of action.

Spark Therapeutics

Series B in 2014
Spark Therapeutics is developing potentially curative, one-time gene therapy products to transform the lives of patients and re-imagine the treatment of debilitating diseases. The founding team includes scientists who have led the advancement of gene therapy over the past two decades, establishing human proof of concept of the expression of gene therapy in the eye and liver. Spark’s robust pipeline includes SPK-RPE65, a fully enrolled, pivotal Phase 3 program in blindness due to mutations in the RPE65 gene, SPK-CHM for the treatment of choroideremia, and SPK-FIX, a program for the potential treatment of hemophilia B through a global collaboration with Pfizer Inc., as well as preclinical programs to address neurodegenerative diseases and other retinal degenerative diseases and hematologic disorders. Spark has rights to a proprietary manufacturing platform that has a track record supporting clinical studies across diverse therapeutic areas and routes of administration. Spark’s expertise across research, clinical, regulatory and manufacturing builds on a legacy of innovation and excellence in gene therapy established by Spark’s team while at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics.
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