Coming on the heels of a $130 million fundraising round just four months ago, bone-focused Angitia Biopharmaceuticals has pivoted away from its lead asset to structure its pipeline around two earlier-stage drug candidates.
The musculoskeletal outfit has dropped AGA111, a recombinant human BMP-6 protein designed to stimulate bone growth, terminating a phase 3 study of the molecule in patients undergoing spinal fusion surgery.
The trial termination was not due to safety concerns, Angitia wrote on the federal clinical trials database.
Angitia’s discontinuation of AGA111’s development was confirmed to Fierce Biotech by a person familiar with the company’s programs. The biotech will instead focus on its wholly owned bispecific antibodies AGA2118 and AGA2115, which are in phase 2 development for osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta, respectively, as well as its discovery efforts.
In its recent fundraise and the 2024 $120 million series C that preceded it, Angitia chose to emphasize its work on AGA2118 and AGA2115 rather than AGA111. Both assets target sclerostin and DKK1, which suppress the critical Wnt signaling pathway in bone. Wnt controls cell division, so hampering sclerostin and DKK1 is meant to ramp up growth of bone tissue.
In targeting sclerostin, Angitia is looking to take on Amgen’s Evenity, which was approved in 2019 to treat osteoporosis in postmenopausal women at high risk of fracture. Amgen is now testing the med in a phase 3 osteogenesis imperfecta trial. DKK1, meanwhile, has been recognized as a promising bone target for some time, but has yet to be successfully drugged.
Angitia’s founder and CEO Hua Zhu (David) Ke, M.D., helped lead development of Evenity during an eight-year stint at Amgen. He started his industry career with a 13-year tenure at Pfizer.
Angitia boasts headquarters in Guangzhou, China, and Westlake Village, near Los Angeles. The biotech has attracted a suite of big-name venture capitalist backers, including Bain Capital, RA Capital Management, Frazier Life Sciences and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners.