Sitryx, a new biopharmaceutical company focused on regulating cell metabolism to develop disease-modifying therapeutics in immuno-oncology and immuno-inflammation, announced it has closed its Series A financing round. The company, founded with seed funding from SV Health investors, raised a total of $30 million from a syndicate of specialist international healthcare investors co-led by SV Health Investors and Sofinnova Partners and that also included Longwood Fund and the global healthcare company GSK. The investment will be used to develop disease-modifying therapies in immuno-oncology and immuno-inflammation.
"Immunometabolism is an extremely exciting and compelling scientific area and, at Sitryx, we have seen that modulation of these key cellular pathways has broad therapeutic potential across multiple disorders with unmet medical need, particularly in the areas of immuno-oncology and immuno-inflammation," said Neil Weir, CEO of Sitryx. "We are delighted to welcome leading specialist investors to the company, which further validates the strength of our scientific expertise and ambitions. Together with our proprietary chemistry, deep biological insights and world leading team of immunometabolism experts, Sitryx is well positioned to become a leader in immunometabolism.”
Sitryx brings the expertise of its founders in the field of immunometabolism to address a broad range of immunometabolic targets. Through differentiated chemistry approaches, including small molecules, proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTACS) and topical formulations, Sitryx has built a portfolio of projects addressing oncology and immuno-inflammatory indications. Sitryx’s proprietary science is supported through close working with GSK’s drug discovery and chemistry experts. This includes access to certain GSK technologies and the licensing of intellectual property, including chemical matter, from GSK. GSK’s interest in Sitryx arose from work within the Immunology Network.
Sitryx co-founders comprise Houman Ashrafian, Partner at SV Health Investors; Luke O’Neill, Professor of Biochemistry, School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin; Jonathan Powell, Professor of Oncology and Associate Director, Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Johns Hopkins University; Jeff Rathmell, Professor of Cancer Biology and Director, Vanderbilt Center for Immunobiology; Michael Rosenblum, Assistant Professor, UCSF School of Medicine; and Paul Peter Tak, former Chief Immunology Officer and Senior Vice President at GSK and Professor of Medicine at Amsterdam University Medical Centre.
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