A spinoff from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne has rounded up a hefty $37.5 million A round from a prominent group of biotech investors to develop a new-and-improved portfolio of immune-tolerant therapies.
Anokion has set out to prevent the immune response sometimes triggered by protein drugs, such as the ones used to treat hemophilia. When the body recognizes these therapies as an invader, the immune system gets to work on destroying them, causing a reaction that prevents their use. The biotech, which was founded on technology developed by scientist and entrepreneur Jeff Hubbell, will set out to develop drugs masked in a way that prevents the immune system from seeing them as "foreign" entities in need of destruction. Blunting the adverse event profile will broaden the effectiveness of existing drugs--including some new formulations for off-patent therapies--while allowing others to make it through clinical development.
The whole idea here is that new treatments can guard red blood cells by "decorating them with the protein," Hubbell tells FierceBiotech. Anokion has started as a virtual company but now plans to build its scientific team, creating a group of about 10 as they point to their first Phase I study in 2017.
Hubbell says the company is already scouting for some biopharma partners most likely to benefit from the work they're doing.
Hubbell attracted some top venture groups to the biotech. Novartis Venture Fund, Novo Ventures and Versant Ventures co-led the financing with additional participation by private investors.
After working at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Hubbell himself is on the move to the University of Chicago. With Anokion, he now has three biotech startups to his credit on both sides of the Atlantic. He also started Focal and sold it to Genzyme in 2001 and launched Kuros Biosurgery in Zurich, which focuses on tissue repair.
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