Takeda

Takeda Ventures, Inc. is the venture capital arm of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, focusing on investments in the healthcare and life sciences sectors. Established in 2001 and based in Palo Alto, California, the firm engages in both direct and fund-of-fund investing, targeting seed, startup, early, mid-stage, and mid-venture capital opportunities. Takeda Ventures emphasizes therapeutic innovation, particularly in areas such as cardiovascular diseases, chronic inflammatory and immune disorders, central nervous system conditions, metabolic disorders, gastroenterology, renal diseases, oncology, and regenerative medicine. The firm typically invests between $0.25 million and $5 million, preferring to take minority stakes while collaborating with other investors. Takeda Ventures does not invest in gene therapy, anti-infective products, medical devices, or diagnostics. It aims to facilitate therapeutic discovery alliances and foster synergies with Takeda's extensive R&D capabilities, supporting entrepreneurs and early-stage companies from preclinical development to clinical proof of concept. The firm primarily focuses its investments in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Andrew Plump Ph.D

President, Research and Development

Robbie Woodman

Senior Partner

139 past transactions

OncoResponse

Venture Round in 2023
OncoResponse is an immuno-oncology biotech company that is leveraging its proprietary human antibody platform to discover novel targets and identify fully human monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics for the treatment of cancers. It identifies genuine human antibodies to a variety of high-value targets linked with immunosuppressive myeloid biology. OncoResponse's antibody pipeline is expected to alleviate TME immunosuppression and boost immune activation, turning cold tumors hot.
Greater Chicago Food Depository they programs includes food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters,

Project Scientist

Grant in 2023
The only focused effort of its kind, Project Scientist was developed to offer girls the essential support unique to each stage of a future scientists' life serving girls/women ages 4 to PhD age. Through extensive research on current trends and practices has built a robust & focused, three-phase, program pipeline to serve as a national model for advancing girls and women, of all ages, in their STEM interests and passions.
Breakthrough Greater Boston transforms urban education for students and teachers through its unique Students Teaching Students model. Through six years of intensive, tuition-free out-of-school-time programming for traditionally underserved middle and high school students.

Food For Free

Grant in 2023
Food For Free improves access to healthy food through establishing innovative programming and partnerships to overcome barriers and strengthen the community food system.

Cerevance

Series B in 2023
Cerevance is a biotechnology company that develops novel therapeutics for neurological diseases, including chronic neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Using a large and growing repository of over 15,000 human brain tissue samples, the company generates an unprecedented level of expression and epigenetic data, enabling the company to identify the most promising targets for the next generation of treatments for CNS disorders.

Be Biopharma

Series B in 2022
Be Biopharma pioneers engineered B cell medicines aimed at improving treatments for conditions like Hemophilia B and cancer. Their innovative approach utilizes precision genome editing to create durable and effective cell therapies.

Koneksa Health

Series C in 2022
Koneksa Health is a healthcare data analytics company that helps researchers incorporate emerging technologies (bio-sensors, activity trackers, mobile-based questionnaires, etc.) into their clinical studies. Their Koneksa Compare software dashboard enables the collection, visualization, and analysis of these patient-generated data sets. Koneksa currently supports academic and life sciences researchers, expands the universe of data that can be analyzed while also removing subjective characteristics from clinical endpoints. It was founded in 2015 and is based in New York, United States.
Crohn's and Colitis Canada is a charitable group run entirely by volunteers dedicated to curing Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and enhancing the lives of children and adults who are affected by these conditions. Through research, patient programs, advocacy, and awareness, they are altering the lives of people with Crohn's or colitis. They lay the foundation for new and more effective treatments while also resulting in significant advances in the fields of genetics, gut microbes, inflammation, and cell repair.

Ambys Medicines

Series A in 2021
Ambys Medicines is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing regenerative and restorative therapies. Ambys Medicines is working to fundamentally transform the lives of people suffering from severe liver diseases by creating breakthrough therapies capable of restoring liver function, preventing the progression of liver disease, and treating the devastating complications of liver failure.

Integra Therapeutics

Seed Round in 2021
Integra Therapeutics is a developer of next-generation of gene editing tools to cure diseases.

Aptihealth

Series B in 2021
Aptihealth is a behavioral health engagement company that uses technology to seamlessly integrate physical and behavioral healthcare. Its groundbreaking platform connects medical providers, behavioral health specialists, behavioral health prescribers, and patients with its proprietary screening, assessment, and treatment management protocols. Aptihealth’s digital platform provides a seamless and effective approach to virtual, intelligent integrated care that helps patients get better faster and stay better longer. Aptihealth provides those in need of behavioral healthcare with a fast track to better mental health.

Cardurion Pharmaceuticals

Venture Round in 2021
Cardurion Pharmaceuticals is a Boston-based biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. The company is advancing groundbreaking clinical programs targeting PDE9 and CaMKII inhibition, leveraging its expertise in cardiovascular signaling pathways to address unmet patient needs.

Egle Therapeutics

Series A in 2021
Egle Therapeutics is an emerging biotechnology company focused on developing First-In-Class immunotherapies targeting immune suppressor regulatory T-cells (Tregs) for oncology and autoimmune diseases. The company was founded in 2020 and is based in Paris, France.

Oshi Health

Series A in 2021
Oshi Health is a virtual-first gastroenterology (GI) clinic that diagnoses, treats and remotely monitors digestive (GI) conditions. Patients work with Oshi Health's integrated care team of gastroenterologists and GI-specialized nurse practitioners, registered dietitians, behavioral psychologists and health coaches to determine the root causes of their symptoms and use a personalized care plan that includes medication, dietary interventions and gut-brain behavioral therapy to get symptoms under control.

Tele911

Venture Round in 2021
Tele911 is a technology company that integrates with EMS Provider Agencies to care for stable patients via our Tele911 Virtual Visit.

Turnstone Biologics

Series D in 2021
Turnstone Biologics is a privately-held clinical-stage biotech company. Turnstone Biologics’ mission is to deliver breakthrough cancer immunotherapies by advancing two leading and complementary platforms targeting tumor immunity, to improve survival for people with cancer.

Ribon Therapeutics

Series C in 2021
Ribon Therapeutics is a biotechnology company pioneering the discovery of new cancer medicines that target monoPARP proteins, critical regulators of cancer survival mechanisms. The diverse and central functions that PARPs, or poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases, play in cancer cell survival pathways are just emerging, and many of the seminal discoveries in the field have been made by Ribon’s scientific founders. By combining insights from our founders and an experienced management team, Ribon is building a proprietary drug discovery platform to investigate the molecular action and biological function of a subset of the PARP protein family, called monoPARPs. Based on its platform, Ribon is creating a pipeline of innovative medicines that selectively target monoPARPs to treat cancer and may have the potential to impact other diseases. The company is backed by prominent life science investors, including The Column Group, U.S. Venture Partners, Deerfield Management and Osage University Partners.

Harness Therapeutics

Seed Round in 2021
Harness Therapeutics is a private biotechnology company focused on the development of a novel class of therapeutic RNAs that can upregulate protein expression with an unprecedented level of control and specificity: the SINEUPs®. The company's pioneering technology is expected to offer an entirely unique mechanism of action for currently hard-to-treat diseases by massively extending the druggable proteome and allowing it to address diseases that have been beyond the reach of small molecules, conventional biologics, or gene therapies. We have a particular focus on CNS and opthalmologic disorders but our platform has applications in multiple therapy areas

BridGene Biosciences

Series A in 2021
BridGene Biosciences is a biotechnology company using cutting-edge chemoproteomic technology to discover and develop small molecules. It enables covalent small molecules to perform proteome-wide screening in live cells, which results in highly selective small molecules that drug traditionally undruggable targets.

Code Biotherapeutics

Seed Round in 2021
Code Biotherapeutics is a next-generation gene therapy company pioneering the development of targeted non-viral gene therapies to treat serious and life-threatening genetic diseases. Code Bio leverages its novel multivalent synthetic DNA delivery platform, 3DNA, which has been engineered to overcome many of the challenges inherent with viral-based gene therapies such as immunogenicity, size and delivery limitations, re-dosability, and manufacturing complexity. The company is advancing an internal pipeline focused on select rare disease programs as well as establishing partnerships to take forward programs in both rare and prevalent diseases.

Adaptate Biotherapeutics

Series A in 2021
Adaptate is a biotherapeutics company that develops antibodies to modulate gamma delta T cells in situ. The company was founded in 2019 by Adrian Hayday and is headquartered in London.

Arcellx

Series C in 2021
Arcellx is a clinical-stage biotechnology company reimagining cell therapy by engineering innovative immunotherapies for patients with cancer and other incurable diseases. Arcellx believes that cell therapies are one of the forward pillars of medicine and Arcellx’s mission is to advance humanity by developing cell therapies that are safer, more effective, and more broadly accessible. Arcellx’s lead product candidate, CART-ddBCMA, is being developed for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (r/r MM) in an ongoing Phase 1 study. CART-ddBCMA has been granted Fast Track, Orphan Drug, and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Arcellx is also advancing its dosable and controllable CAR-T therapy, ARC-SparX, into the clinic through two programs: ACLX-001 in r/r MM and ACLX-002 in relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

StrideBio

Series B in 2021
StrideBio is a gene therapy company focused on developing genetic medicines with curative potential for patients with devastating conditions. It leverages its proprietary structure-inspired adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector engineering platform to create unique and differentiated vectors that improve upon naturally occurring AAV serotypes to overcome current limitations of first-generation gene therapies. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

Maverick Therapeutics

Acquisition in 2021
Maverick Therapeutics is a biotech company focused on improving the lives of patients with solid tumor cancers by developing breakthrough T cell immunotherapies with improved safety and efficacy. Their highly innovative platform, COBRA™, is the most advanced bispecific T cell engaging platform in its class, designed to safely target solid tumors with highly specific and potent activity.

Presage Biosciences

Convertible Note in 2021
Presage has developed a means of assessing tumor response to drugs or RNA interference agents without the limitations inherent to systemic administration. The Presage clinical surrogate approach enables drug companies to halt development projects for compounds that show no efficacy in the native tumor microenvironment. In addition, the Presage approach can identify drug targets using RNA interference without concern regarding localization or distribution of systemically administered RNAi agents. Presage technology can also be used to identify effective drug combinations in ways that more directly measure the efficacy of such combinations than otherwise possible.

Xilio Therapeutics

Series C in 2021
Xilio Therapeutics is a biotechnology company. They offer cancer immunotherapies designed to improve patient outcomes by unleashing the power of the immune system selectively at the site of the tumor. Their tumor-selective immunotherapies are based on its proprietary technology, which maximizes the potency of proven immuno-oncology therapies and restricts their activity to the tumor to minimize peripheral side effects.

Ensoma

Series A in 2021
Ensoma is expanding the reach of the curative power of genomic medicine by pioneering a next-generation in vivo approach using its Engenious vectors. Ensoma’s vectors are designed to deliver a diverse range of gene modification technologies without the need for stem cell collection or prior myeloablative conditioning (e.g., chemotherapy). As a result, Ensoma’s therapies can be delivered as a single injection in a diverse range of settings, including outpatient and settings where access to sophisticated healthcare systems may be limited.

Aspen RxHealth

Series B in 2021
Aspen RxHealth is a service powered by an app-based platform that connects pharmacists with patients in need of enhanced medication services. Its application makes it easy for health plans and providers to connect their patients with an on-demand community of pharmacists who have time and expertise to provide clinical service.

Catamaran Bio

Series A in 2020
Catamaran Bio is a biotechnology company that specializes in allogeneic immune cell therapies. It offers cell therapy company developing allogeneic, off-the-shelf products for patients with an unmet medical need. It was founded in 2020 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bridge Medicines

Funding Round in 2020
Bridge Medicines is a drug discovery company launched in partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. and healthcare investment firms Bay City Capital and Deerfield Management. Bridge Medicines is a groundbreaking initiative that completes an unbroken, fully funded and professionally staffed path from concept to drug candidate, to develop efficiently and quickly innovative therapeutics for the treatment of human diseases.

Be Biopharma

Series A in 2020
Be Biopharma pioneers engineered B cell medicines aimed at improving treatments for conditions like Hemophilia B and cancer. Their innovative approach utilizes precision genome editing to create durable and effective cell therapies.

XFOREST Therapeutics

Seed Round in 2020
xFOREST Therapeutics provides technology platforms that integrate massively parallel biochemical analysis systems for species of RNA structures and in silico analysis pipelines. Their analyses include various RNA structures, regardless of their source organ, species, or virus.

Oshi Health

Seed Round in 2020
Oshi Health is a virtual-first gastroenterology (GI) clinic that diagnoses, treats and remotely monitors digestive (GI) conditions. Patients work with Oshi Health's integrated care team of gastroenterologists and GI-specialized nurse practitioners, registered dietitians, behavioral psychologists and health coaches to determine the root causes of their symptoms and use a personalized care plan that includes medication, dietary interventions and gut-brain behavioral therapy to get symptoms under control.

Palleon Pharmaceuticals

Series B in 2020
Palleon Pharmaceuticals is a developer of a biotechnology platform designed to offer glycoimmune checkpoint inhibitors to treat cancer.The company's biotechnology platform integrates technologies and insights from scientific leaders all over the world in the fields of glycoscience and human immunology to create a novel approach to treating cancer by targeting multiple immune cell types, providing physicians with a wider range of rational combination therapies to treat cancer and tackle resistance to first-generation immuno-oncology agents.

ImmPACT Bio

Series A in 2020
ImmPACT Bio USA Inc. is a cell therapy company aiming to develop potent and selective engineered T-cells for the treatment of solid tumors. The Company's technology enables targeting loss-of-gene features of solid tumor cells, sparing normal, healthy tissues.

VelosBio

Series B in 2020
VelosBio is an operator of a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company intended to develop novel, first-in-class, ROR1-directed therapeutics to transform the lives of patients with cancer. The company's ROR1-directed therapeutics is a cell-surface protein that is expressed on many hematologic and solid tumors but is absent from normal tissues, making it an attractive tumor-specific therapeutic target and has demonstrated positive preclinical results in tumor models, enabling institutions to get novel targeted therapies for use as monotherapy or in combination across a broad range of cancers. It was founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Diego, California.

ENTEROME

Series E in 2020
Enterome’s OncoMimic technology allows the overcoming of immune tolerance against cancer cells, with broad applicability against solid tumor via an off-the-shelf, easy to manufacture technology. Enterome’s potentially first-in-class small protein and peptide drug candidates modulate the immune system by closely mimicking the structure, effect or actions of Tumor Associated Antigens to induce a potent, endogenous CD8 T cell response. The company’s most advanced programs are in Phase 2 clinical trials in hard-to-treat tumors such as glioblastoma, adrenal malignancies and colorectal cancer.

Amwell

Series C in 2020
Amwell is a telehealth platform in the United States and globally, connecting and enabling providers, insurers, patients, and innovators to deliver greater access to more affordable, higher quality care. Amwell believes that digital care delivery will transform healthcare. The company offers a single, comprehensive platform to support all telehealth needs from urgent to acute and post-acute care, as well as chronic care management and healthy living. With over a decade of experience, Amwell powers telehealth solutions for over 240 health systems comprised of 2,000 hospitals and 55 health plan partners with over 36,000 employers, reaching over 150 million lives. Amwell was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cerevance

Series B in 2020
Cerevance is a biotechnology company that develops novel therapeutics for neurological diseases, including chronic neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Using a large and growing repository of over 15,000 human brain tissue samples, the company generates an unprecedented level of expression and epigenetic data, enabling the company to identify the most promising targets for the next generation of treatments for CNS disorders.

Redpin Therapeutics

Series A in 2020
Redpin Therapeutics operates as a preclinical stage gene therapy company. It develops a proprietary chemogenetics platform for targeted cell therapies that address currently intractable diseases of the nervous system. Its approach integrates powerful principles from synthetic biology, gene therapy, and traditional pharmacotherapy. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in New York.

Xilio Therapeutics

Series B in 2020
Xilio Therapeutics is a biotechnology company. They offer cancer immunotherapies designed to improve patient outcomes by unleashing the power of the immune system selectively at the site of the tumor. Their tumor-selective immunotherapies are based on its proprietary technology, which maximizes the potency of proven immuno-oncology therapies and restricts their activity to the tumor to minimize peripheral side effects.

PvP Biologics

Acquisition in 2020
PvP Biologics is developing an oral enzyme for the treatment of celiac disease. Our mission is to develop a highly-effective therapeutic product to reduce the burden of living with this disease. Towards this end, we are advancing a product candidate designed to break down the immuno-reactive parts of gluten in the stomach and thereby avoid the painful symptoms and damage done in the small intestine from accidental gluten ingestion.

EmendoBio, Inc.

Series B in 2020
Emendo was set up to expand what is possible in genome editing. They believe that challenges can be overcome by fusing expertise in diverse disciplines, and by looking at the core questions with a new approach. Having studied at top academic institutions, including the Weizmann Institute, Emendo’s founders came together to pool their collective knowledge of protein engineering and DNA repair to achieve a shared goal: the creation of genetic medicines that deliver on the promise of gene editing. By transforming the available tools, they are able to address those disorders and diseases that are currently considered to be untreatable. Working at the cutting edge of gene editing, the Emendo team combines knowledge, expertise and proven scientific methodologies, with creativity, ingenuity and daring to push the boundaries and achieve more.

EvolveImmune Therapeutics

Venture Round in 2020
EvolveImmune Therapeutics develops an immunobiological platform that delivers both sustained immune activation and tumor cell targeting in a single agent. Through integrated signaling, EVs first in category biologics directly target tumor cells and provide potent, tissue-localized amplification of cytokine secretion at the tumor site to maximize tumor killing. The company's biotherapeutics are engineered to overcome the limitations of conventional CD3 bispecific and other immune therapies to offer a better future for our patients in need, by maximizing therapeutic benefit and minimizing toxicity.

Harness Therapeutics

Seed Round in 2020
Harness Therapeutics is a private biotechnology company focused on the development of a novel class of therapeutic RNAs that can upregulate protein expression with an unprecedented level of control and specificity: the SINEUPs®. The company's pioneering technology is expected to offer an entirely unique mechanism of action for currently hard-to-treat diseases by massively extending the druggable proteome and allowing it to address diseases that have been beyond the reach of small molecules, conventional biologics, or gene therapies. We have a particular focus on CNS and opthalmologic disorders but our platform has applications in multiple therapy areas

Turnstone Biologics

Corporate Round in 2019
Turnstone Biologics is a privately-held clinical-stage biotech company. Turnstone Biologics’ mission is to deliver breakthrough cancer immunotherapies by advancing two leading and complementary platforms targeting tumor immunity, to improve survival for people with cancer.

Oshi Health

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Oshi Health is a virtual-first gastroenterology (GI) clinic that diagnoses, treats and remotely monitors digestive (GI) conditions. Patients work with Oshi Health's integrated care team of gastroenterologists and GI-specialized nurse practitioners, registered dietitians, behavioral psychologists and health coaches to determine the root causes of their symptoms and use a personalized care plan that includes medication, dietary interventions and gut-brain behavioral therapy to get symptoms under control.

Avidity Biosciences

Series C in 2019
Avidity Biosciences, Inc. is pioneering a new class of oligonucleotide-based therapies called AOCs designed to overcome the current limitations of oligonucleotide therapies in order to treat a wide range of serious diseases. Avidity utilizes its proprietary AOC platform to design, engineer and develop therapeutics that combine the tissue selectivity of monoclonal antibodies and the precision of oligonucleotide therapies in order to access previously undruggable tissue and cell types and more effectively target underlying genetic drivers of diseases. Avidity's lead product candidate, AOC 1001, is designed to treat myotonic dystrophy type 1, and its four other muscle programs are focused on the treatment of muscle atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and Pompe disease. In addition to its muscle franchise, Avidity has development efforts focused on immune and other cell types.

Protekt Therapeutics

Venture Round in 2019
ProteKt Therapeutics is a drug development company aiming to develop potent and selective oral inhibitors of the kinase PKR for the treatment of neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases. The company has raised a $4M pre-A round and graduated from the FutuRx accelerator in 2019.

Arcellx

Series B in 2019
Arcellx is a clinical-stage biotechnology company reimagining cell therapy by engineering innovative immunotherapies for patients with cancer and other incurable diseases. Arcellx believes that cell therapies are one of the forward pillars of medicine and Arcellx’s mission is to advance humanity by developing cell therapies that are safer, more effective, and more broadly accessible. Arcellx’s lead product candidate, CART-ddBCMA, is being developed for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (r/r MM) in an ongoing Phase 1 study. CART-ddBCMA has been granted Fast Track, Orphan Drug, and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Arcellx is also advancing its dosable and controllable CAR-T therapy, ARC-SparX, into the clinic through two programs: ACLX-001 in r/r MM and ACLX-002 in relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Phathom Pharmaceuticals

Venture Round in 2019
Phathom Pharmaceuticals, launched in 2019 by Frazier Healthcare Partners and Takeda Pharmaceuticals, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel treatments for gastrointestinal (GI) diseases and disorders. The company is advancing the clinical drug candidate vonoprazan, a novel potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB). Vonoprazan has the potential to address multiple unmet needs among patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other acid-related disorders. Phathom has assembled a leading team of seasoned gastrointestinal and pharmaceutical industry experts with proven experience developing and commercializing highly innovative therapies.

Hookipa Pharma

Series D in 2019
Hookipa Biotech is a clinical stage company developing next-generation immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer using novel proprietary arenavirus vector platforms. Hookipa´s TheraT® and Vaxwave® platforms have shown promising abilities to elicit high neutralizing antibody responses, but also necessary levels of T cell responses, currently missing in most vaccine and therapeutic approaches. Hookipa’s vectors are not impeded by vector-neutralizing antibodies and can be administered repeatedly, providing even greater immune protection. Levels of specific T cells generated by TheraT® are unprecedented in the field and have the potential to transform active immune-therapy in cancers. Hookipa has completed the active phase of a Phase 1 trial of a Vaxwave®-based vaccine against cytomegalovirus (CMV) and is finalizing clinical development plans for TheraT® in Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)- related head and neck cancers.

BIOMx

Series B in 2019
BiomX discovers and develops innovative microbiome therapeutics. The Company's mission is to develop novel therapeutics for preventing and treating diseases in which microbiome imbalances have been implicated. BiomX's microbiome modulation technologies are based on the cutting-edge innovative research of its scientific collaborators: Professor Rotem Sorek, PhD and Dr. Eran Elinav, MD, PhD both of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Professor Timothy K. Lu, MD, PhD of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ribon Therapeutics

Series B in 2019
Ribon Therapeutics is a biotechnology company pioneering the discovery of new cancer medicines that target monoPARP proteins, critical regulators of cancer survival mechanisms. The diverse and central functions that PARPs, or poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases, play in cancer cell survival pathways are just emerging, and many of the seminal discoveries in the field have been made by Ribon’s scientific founders. By combining insights from our founders and an experienced management team, Ribon is building a proprietary drug discovery platform to investigate the molecular action and biological function of a subset of the PARP protein family, called monoPARPs. Based on its platform, Ribon is creating a pipeline of innovative medicines that selectively target monoPARPs to treat cancer and may have the potential to impact other diseases. The company is backed by prominent life science investors, including The Column Group, U.S. Venture Partners, Deerfield Management and Osage University Partners.

Axcelead

Seed Round in 2018
Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners will combine scientific excellence, world-class IP protection and state-of-the art GLP accredited facilities and capabilities to deliver integrated end-to-end early discovery.

Avidity Biosciences

Series B in 2018
Avidity Biosciences, Inc. is pioneering a new class of oligonucleotide-based therapies called AOCs designed to overcome the current limitations of oligonucleotide therapies in order to treat a wide range of serious diseases. Avidity utilizes its proprietary AOC platform to design, engineer and develop therapeutics that combine the tissue selectivity of monoclonal antibodies and the precision of oligonucleotide therapies in order to access previously undruggable tissue and cell types and more effectively target underlying genetic drivers of diseases. Avidity's lead product candidate, AOC 1001, is designed to treat myotonic dystrophy type 1, and its four other muscle programs are focused on the treatment of muscle atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and Pompe disease. In addition to its muscle franchise, Avidity has development efforts focused on immune and other cell types.

VelosBio

Series A in 2018
VelosBio is an operator of a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company intended to develop novel, first-in-class, ROR1-directed therapeutics to transform the lives of patients with cancer. The company's ROR1-directed therapeutics is a cell-surface protein that is expressed on many hematologic and solid tumors but is absent from normal tissues, making it an attractive tumor-specific therapeutic target and has demonstrated positive preclinical results in tumor models, enabling institutions to get novel targeted therapies for use as monotherapy or in combination across a broad range of cancers. It was founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Diego, California.

Ambys Medicines

Corporate Round in 2018
Ambys Medicines is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing regenerative and restorative therapies. Ambys Medicines is working to fundamentally transform the lives of people suffering from severe liver diseases by creating breakthrough therapies capable of restoring liver function, preventing the progression of liver disease, and treating the devastating complications of liver failure.

Ambys Medicines

Series A in 2018
Ambys Medicines is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing regenerative and restorative therapies. Ambys Medicines is working to fundamentally transform the lives of people suffering from severe liver diseases by creating breakthrough therapies capable of restoring liver function, preventing the progression of liver disease, and treating the devastating complications of liver failure.

Gexval

Series A in 2018
GEXVal is a research and development-oriented drug discovery company. The company specializes in the creation of treatments for rare and incurable diseases. The mission of GEXVal is to provide patients and families with the rare and incurable diseases with innovative, cost-effective treatment options that will enhance their health and quality of life.

Presage Biosciences

Series D in 2018
Presage has developed a means of assessing tumor response to drugs or RNA interference agents without the limitations inherent to systemic administration. The Presage clinical surrogate approach enables drug companies to halt development projects for compounds that show no efficacy in the native tumor microenvironment. In addition, the Presage approach can identify drug targets using RNA interference without concern regarding localization or distribution of systemically administered RNAi agents. Presage technology can also be used to identify effective drug combinations in ways that more directly measure the efficacy of such combinations than otherwise possible.

ARTham Therapeutics

Series A in 2018
ARTham Therapeutics creates value by developing medicines that are disease-modifying and improve patient health. They operate a virtual research and development model that seeks innovation through academic and business partners.

Reborna Biosciences

Seed Round in 2018
Reborna Biosciences provides research and development in the field of genetic diseases. The company develops therapeutic options for area of unmet medical needs in genetic rare disease. The company's technology enables low-molecular compounds to target ribonucleic acid. The company provides new disease-modifying drugs for patients suffering from rare genetic diseases including spinal muscular atrophy.

StrideBio

Series A in 2018
StrideBio is a gene therapy company focused on developing genetic medicines with curative potential for patients with devastating conditions. It leverages its proprietary structure-inspired adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector engineering platform to create unique and differentiated vectors that improve upon naturally occurring AAV serotypes to overcome current limitations of first-generation gene therapies. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

Quince Therapeutics

Series B in 2018
Cortexyme is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics based on data supporting a new theory of the cause of Alzheimer's and other degenerative disorders. Cortexyme is targeting a specific, undisclosed pathogen tied to neurodegeneration. The target has been validated in a number of animal models and Cortexyme is currently testing several potential lead therapeutics in preclinical studies.

Crescendo Biologics

Series B in 2018
Crescendo Biologics is a new Cambridge-based company whose vision is to deliver next-generation antibody therapeutics based on novel class-leading platforms. The focus of the company is on developing platforms that will address key issues in generating high-affinity, soluble, human VH antibody fragments. These are the smallest fragments that retain antibody binding, and have many desirable properties as potential therapeutics. Crescendo will then utilise these platforms for product development of in-house targets or in partnership with other companies.

Shire

Acquisition in 2018
Shire is the leading global biotechnology company focused on serving people with rare diseases. They have a global sales and marketing infrastructure with a broad portfolio of products and direct marketing capability in the US, Canada, UK, Republic of Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. At Shire, the company ground everything they do in their purpose of enabling people with life altering conditions to lead better lives. The company's patient and customer focused culture encourages employees to embrace innovation and challenge the status quo through respectful and inclusive engagement with colleagues. Honesty and transparency are inherent in all that we do as we work with a high sense of urgency to become a leading global biotech delivering innovative therapies to patients with rare diseases and other specialty conditions. We foster an environment where leaders are positive, accountable, results driven and great people managers. Our employees own their development in partnership with their manager, understand and leverage their strengths, bring their whole selves to work, and like the leaders they are expected to eventually become, share the essential traits of positive, accountable and results driven. Our non-hierarchical structure and clear reporting lines enable quick decision making, nimble execution and the opportunity for employees to enjoy the work and grow to their fullest potential. The company is committed to recruit, develop and retain top talent who take a responsible and ethical approach to all that we do and who want to make a difference in the lives of patients across the globe.

Fimecs

Seed Round in 2018
FIMECS is a protein degradation technology-based drug discovery biotech focused on developing first-in-class protein degradation therapeutics for cancers and other difficult-to-treat diseases. The human body is comprised of at least 18,097 proteins.It has been revealed that 1,500 of them are related to certain diseases, nevertheless only about 300 proteins have been regarded as druggable targets by small molecule drug discovery and all the rest have been undruggable.

Cerevance

Venture Round in 2018
Cerevance is a biotechnology company that develops novel therapeutics for neurological diseases, including chronic neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Using a large and growing repository of over 15,000 human brain tissue samples, the company generates an unprecedented level of expression and epigenetic data, enabling the company to identify the most promising targets for the next generation of treatments for CNS disorders.

Wave Life Sciences

Post in 2018
Wave Life Sciences (Nasdaq: WVE) is a clinical-stage RNA medicines company committed to delivering life-changing treatments for people battling devastating diseases. Wave aspires to develop best-in-class medicines across multiple therapeutic modalities using PRISM, the company’s proprietary discovery and drug development platform that enables the precise design, optimization, and production of stereopure oligonucleotides. Driven by a resolute sense of urgency, the Wave team is targeting a broad range of genetically defined diseases so that patients and families may realize a brighter future. To find out more, please visit www.wavelifesciences.com and follow Wave on Twitter @WaveLifeSci.

TiGenix

Acquisition in 2018
TiGenix NV (TiGenix) and its subsidiaries TiGenix Inc. and TC CEF LLC. is a Belgium-based biomedical company that focuses on innovative local treatments for damaged and osteoarthritic joints. The Company is exploiting the power of regenerative medicine for the development of durable treatments, validated through controlled clinical studies, for these indications. TiGenix is located in Leuven and was founded as a spin-off of the Catholic University of Leuven and the University of Ghent. TiGenix is developing a portfolio of products that addresses specific musculoskeletal problems. The lead indication among these is cartilage damage, which is a debilitating affliction severely affecting the mobility and functioning of patients. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009, the Company acquired Orthomimetics Ltd.

SEEDSUPPLY

Seed Round in 2018
SEEDSUPPLY research and develops medical and agricultural chemical products. The company is a spin-off of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and established in May 2017 and is headquartered in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan.

Hookipa Pharma

Series C in 2017
Hookipa Biotech is a clinical stage company developing next-generation immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer using novel proprietary arenavirus vector platforms. Hookipa´s TheraT® and Vaxwave® platforms have shown promising abilities to elicit high neutralizing antibody responses, but also necessary levels of T cell responses, currently missing in most vaccine and therapeutic approaches. Hookipa’s vectors are not impeded by vector-neutralizing antibodies and can be administered repeatedly, providing even greater immune protection. Levels of specific T cells generated by TheraT® are unprecedented in the field and have the potential to transform active immune-therapy in cancers. Hookipa has completed the active phase of a Phase 1 trial of a Vaxwave®-based vaccine against cytomegalovirus (CMV) and is finalizing clinical development plans for TheraT® in Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)- related head and neck cancers.

Obsidian Therapeutics

Series A in 2017
Obsidian Therapeutics is a developer of a next-generation cell and gene therapies created to extend adoptive immunotherapy to every patient with cancer.The company's next-generation cell and gene therapies with pharmacologic operating systems provide exquisite control of protein activity in cells and create adoptive cell therapies with new functions that are under control of the treating physician using simple, safe, orally-active, marketed drugs, enabling patients to improve on the current generation of cell therapies.

Chordia Therapeutics

Series A in 2017
Chordia Therapeutics is a research and development type bioventure specializing in oncology field. The company has a mission of delivering new therapeutic drugs to patients as soon as possible in the area of ​​cancer with high unmet medical need.

Outpost Medicine

Series A in 2017
At Outpost, they are committed to developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of gastrointestinal and urologic disorders. The company's lead clinical-stage product candidate is in development for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Portal Instruments

Venture Round in 2017
Portal Instruments is an early stage, Series A funded, medical device company in the area of digital drug delivery. We are developing and commercializing a highly innovative platform technology that will transform the delivery of medicines and improve the patient experience. Our aim is to replace all needles and syringes with a safe, silent, painless and smart device and to become the de-facto standard for modern drug delivery. Our patented technology enables the precise delivery of the exact amount of drug at the desired tissue depth irrespective of drug viscosity and composition. Our delivery mechanism is painless to the patient and silent. It is also highly customizable across a large variety of medical, animal, agricultural, and cosmetic applications.

Palleon Pharmaceuticals

Series A in 2017
Palleon Pharmaceuticals is a developer of a biotechnology platform designed to offer glycoimmune checkpoint inhibitors to treat cancer.The company's biotechnology platform integrates technologies and insights from scientific leaders all over the world in the fields of glycoscience and human immunology to create a novel approach to treating cancer by targeting multiple immune cell types, providing physicians with a wider range of rational combination therapies to treat cancer and tackle resistance to first-generation immuno-oncology agents.

Noile-Immune Biotech

Corporate Round in 2017
Neurymune Biotech Co., Ltd. is a national cancer research center specializing in the development of cancer immunotherapies based on CAR-T cell therapy and a venture company from Yamaguchi University. They aim to be a leading company responsible for the next generation in the field of cancer immunotherapy.

Molecular Templates

Post in 2017
Molecular Templates is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutic compounds for cancer and other serious diseases. It primarily develops a pipeline of therapies through its proprietary biologic-engineered toxin body (ETB) drug platform with unique mechanisms of action which are highly differentiated from antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

OrphoMed

Series A in 2017
OrphoMed is a San Francisco Bay Area pharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel first-in-class therapeutic dimer conjugates based on its proprietary DIMERx™ platform technology. The company is leveraging its DIMERx™ technology to address the problem of visceral hypersensitivity and pancreatitis in the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders and the unmet medical needs in the treatment of both peripheral neuropathic and systemic nociceptive pain. The lead candidate ORP-101 is a peripherally acting sodium ion channel blocker (Nav 1.7), mu agonist/kappa antagonist dimer. The molecule does not cross the blood brain barrier and, unlike other opioids that constrict the sphincter of Oddi, ORP-101, when given intravenously in animal studies, has instead been shown to relax the sphincter. The former attribute implies no abuse potential and the latter minimizes the risks of pancreatitis and/or abdominal pain related to sphincter of Oddi constriction. These two attributes, in combination with the well-understood pharmacology of ORP-101, make the molecule a suitable candidate for chronic treatment of conditions associated with visceral and somatic hypersensitivity and hyperalgesia. Therefore we have positioned ORP-101 for two non-overlapping indications: the oral form for colonic hyperalgesia and gastric dysmotility in IBS-D and the parenteral form for the treatment of peripheral neuropathic pain. The potential clinical benefits are backed by compelling data from validated animal models. The company is also developing potent non-opioid and opioid conjugates to treat acute and chronic nociceptive pain. The non-opioid analgesic conjugate is designed to be non-ulcerogenic and liver-safe and, therefore, has the potential to reshape the pain market served by acetaminophen and NSAIDs. Similarly, the opioid conjugate is designed to be orally active and have a lower potential for dependence than currently available opioids. DIMERx™ technology results in conjugates designed to preserve the receptor pharmacology of their individual constituents, but to have therapeutic profiles well suited for different clinical indications. The components of the conjugates have all been previously proven to be safe and effective for other indications and, therefore, the conjugates have reduced developmental risks. The DIMERx™ conjugates are considered to be new molecular entities and have composition of matter intellectual property protection.

BIOMx

Series A in 2017
BiomX discovers and develops innovative microbiome therapeutics. The Company's mission is to develop novel therapeutics for preventing and treating diseases in which microbiome imbalances have been implicated. BiomX's microbiome modulation technologies are based on the cutting-edge innovative research of its scientific collaborators: Professor Rotem Sorek, PhD and Dr. Eran Elinav, MD, PhD both of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Professor Timothy K. Lu, MD, PhD of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

GammaDelta Therapeutics

Acquisition in 2017
GammaDelta Therapeutics is developing the potential of gamma delta (γδ) cells to create improved immunotherapy of cancer and other serious diseases. The company plans to exploit unique properties of tissue resident γδ T cells for effective immunotherapy.

Cerevance

Series A in 2017
Cerevance is a biotechnology company that develops novel therapeutics for neurological diseases, including chronic neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Using a large and growing repository of over 15,000 human brain tissue samples, the company generates an unprecedented level of expression and epigenetic data, enabling the company to identify the most promising targets for the next generation of treatments for CNS disorders.

Quince Therapeutics

Debt Financing in 2017
Cortexyme is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics based on data supporting a new theory of the cause of Alzheimer's and other degenerative disorders. Cortexyme is targeting a specific, undisclosed pathogen tied to neurodegeneration. The target has been validated in a number of animal models and Cortexyme is currently testing several potential lead therapeutics in preclinical studies.

Scohia Pharma

Venture Round in 2017
Scohia Pharma is a biotech venture that will have both substantial research and development resources and be nimble enough to make decisions quickly, will strive to improve patient quality of life by providing patients and healthcare professionals with new therapeutic medications for renal, metabolic.

HelpMum

Grant in 2017
Helpmum offers mobile healthcare services. They use the power of mobile technology and low-cost innovation to tackle maternal and infant mortality in remote areas. HelpMum offers clean birth kits to women in underprivileged and underserved areas and uses its vaccination tracker and HelpMum adviser to make sure that babies don't miss their vaccination appointments. With the help of mobile technology and low-cost innovation, HelpMum aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria.

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals

Acquisition in 2017
ARIAD is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company focused on cancer. We are a cohesive team of talented people from diverse backgrounds with a shared vision: We seek to transform the lives of patients with breakthrough cancer medicines. This is our purpose. This is our passion. This is our promise.

PvP Biologics

Venture Round in 2017
PvP Biologics is developing an oral enzyme for the treatment of celiac disease. Our mission is to develop a highly-effective therapeutic product to reduce the burden of living with this disease. Towards this end, we are advancing a product candidate designed to break down the immuno-reactive parts of gluten in the stomach and thereby avoid the painful symptoms and damage done in the small intestine from accidental gluten ingestion.

Maverick Therapeutics

Venture Round in 2017
Maverick Therapeutics is a biotech company focused on improving the lives of patients with solid tumor cancers by developing breakthrough T cell immunotherapies with improved safety and efficacy. Their highly innovative platform, COBRA™, is the most advanced bispecific T cell engaging platform in its class, designed to safely target solid tumors with highly specific and potent activity.

Cerevance

Series A in 2016
Cerevance is a biotechnology company that develops novel therapeutics for neurological diseases, including chronic neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Using a large and growing repository of over 15,000 human brain tissue samples, the company generates an unprecedented level of expression and epigenetic data, enabling the company to identify the most promising targets for the next generation of treatments for CNS disorders.

Hookipa Pharma

Series B in 2016
Hookipa Biotech is a clinical stage company developing next-generation immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer using novel proprietary arenavirus vector platforms. Hookipa´s TheraT® and Vaxwave® platforms have shown promising abilities to elicit high neutralizing antibody responses, but also necessary levels of T cell responses, currently missing in most vaccine and therapeutic approaches. Hookipa’s vectors are not impeded by vector-neutralizing antibodies and can be administered repeatedly, providing even greater immune protection. Levels of specific T cells generated by TheraT® are unprecedented in the field and have the potential to transform active immune-therapy in cancers. Hookipa has completed the active phase of a Phase 1 trial of a Vaxwave®-based vaccine against cytomegalovirus (CMV) and is finalizing clinical development plans for TheraT® in Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)- related head and neck cancers.

Bridge Medicines

Venture Round in 2016
Bridge Medicines is a drug discovery company launched in partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. and healthcare investment firms Bay City Capital and Deerfield Management. Bridge Medicines is a groundbreaking initiative that completes an unbroken, fully funded and professionally staffed path from concept to drug candidate, to develop efficiently and quickly innovative therapeutics for the treatment of human diseases.

EllieGrid

Grant in 2016
Elliegrid provides medication management services which helps organize pills, set reminders, and track compliance. The company offers pill-box design and software data analytics solutions which also provide healthcare professionals and caregivers with real-time compliance data of their patients and loved ones, so they can make timely interventions. Elliegrid was founded by Hieu Nguyen, Regina Vatterott, Nicolas Dhanam, and Abe Matamoros in 2015 and is based in Austin, Texas.

Bioniz Therapeutics

Series A in 2016
Bioniz is an emerging biotechnology/drug development company focused on discovering small peptides and molecules for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and some forms of cancer. Bioniz mission is to complete proof of concept and preclinical studies of its lead technology and seek partners to conduct clinical trials for regulatory approval and commercialization. At Bioniz, they are committed to the discovery of novel molecules that enhance the lives of people across the globe. They perform our research with integrity and conscious, and bear in mind always our responsibility to the public health and their investors. It was founded in 2009 and headquartered in Irvine, California.

Mersana Therapeutics

Series C in 2016
Mersana Therapeutics employs its biodegradable polymer platform to create new and better medicines. They are advancing their own clinical-stage pipeline of novel compounds with the potential to address multiple oncology indications. It was founded in 2005 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical develops therapeutics for rare diseases, sometimes referred to as Orphan products. Ultragenyx is a efficient and effective development strategies are essential for success in the rare disease space, in which information may be incomplete or ambiguous, and few development precedents exist. The management team's experience in selecting and developing products with clear mechanisms of action for untreated rare diseases will help Ultragenyx create life-changing therapeutics by leveraging existing yet undeveloped science for these little-known indications.

Outpost Medicine

Series A in 2016
At Outpost, they are committed to developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of gastrointestinal and urologic disorders. The company's lead clinical-stage product candidate is in development for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
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