Durham startup’s $100M fundraiser could help lead to revolution in gene therapies – WRAL Tech Wire

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK Kriya Therapeuticsis poised to revolutionize gene therapies for highly serious diseases like diabetes and severe obesity after landing a whopping $100 million in capital.

Thats on top of $80.5 million raised last year.

The biotech startup, with headquarters in Durham and Palo Alto, secured the Series B financing from Patient Square Capital.

Existing institutional investors also participated in this round, including QVT, Dexcel Pharma, Foresite Capital, Bluebird Ventures, Transhuman Capital, Narya Capital, Amplo and JDRF T1D Fund. New investors included Woodline Partners LP, CAM Capital, Hongkou, Alumni Ventures and others.

The company said proceeds from the financing would be used to further develop Kriyas core technology platforms, expand its therapeutic pipeline and advance its current programs in metabolic disease, ophthalmology and oncology.

Gene therapy startup in Triangle lands $100 million in new funding

Meanwhile, Jim Momtazee, managing partner of Patient Square Capital, will join Kriyas board of directors.

In recent years, we have seen the promise of gene therapy become a reality for the treatment of a number of devastating diseases, said Shankar Ramaswamy, M.D., Kriya co-founder and chief executive officer.

However, the field has been constrained by critical limitations in manufacturing technology, vector design capabilities and cost. Kriya was formed with the mission of revolutionizing how gene therapies are designed, developed and produced by fully integrating advanced manufacturing technologies, computational tools and development capabilities within a single company.

Founded in 2019, Kriya is the brainchild of Ramaswamy, former chief business officer for Axovant Gene Therapies; Fraser Wright, co-founder of Sparks Therapeutics; and Roger Jeffs, the former United Therapeutics CEO who has deep rootsinNorth Carolina.

At present, the company is developing its SIRVE (System for Intelligent Rational Vector Engineering) platform for de novo vector design, sequence modification and data analysis.

It is also developing STRIPE (System to Realize Improved Production Efficiency), a proprietary high-efficiency manufacturing platform integrating advances in cell line technology and upstream and downstream process to achieve exponential reductions in production costs at scale.

STRIPE is being developed at Kriyas 51,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park.

The companys full cGMP manufacturing infrastructure is expected to be online this year.

(C) N.C. Biotech Center

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Durham startup's $100M fundraiser could help lead to revolution in gene therapies - WRAL Tech Wire