Preclinical protein degradation biotech Kymera Therapeutics has a great year, nabbing a $102 million round for its march to the clinic, as well as a major tie up with French Big Pharma Sanofi.
Now, like so many of its early-stage peers, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech is seeking an initial public offering (IPO) worth a cool $100 million, though if it follows the current biotech IPO trend, this could be much higher.
The biotech’s approach is to make use of the body’s protein degradation machinery to get rid of disease-causing proteins.
This summer, Sanofi bought into its platform, laying a sizable $150 million as an upfront with more than $2 billion in potential milestones plus royalty payments, should all go to plan.
This is a multi-program collab that sees the French Big Pharma tap Kymera to develop and sell first-in-class protein degrader therapies targeting IRAK4 in patients with immune-inflammatory diseases.
The companies will also partner on a second, earlier-stage program. Kymera retains the option to participate in U.S. development and sales for both programs.
RELATED: Sanofi pays $150M upfront, $2B in biobucks to tap protein degrader biotech Kymera
Back in March, it got off an impressive $102 million series C, which it will now hope to add to a potential $100 million IPO, and the $150 million upfront from Sanofi.
The new capital is slated to see up to three programs into human trials over the next 12 months or so. It will also fund the ongoing development of its protein degradation platform, dubbed Pegasus, allowing the company to discover and advance new treatments.
It has previously disclosed two targets it’s attacking in cancer and inflammatory and immunological diseases. Its lead program targets IRAK4, a protein involved in disease signaling pathways. The company plans to test the treatment in healthy volunteers at the end of this year or early next year.
After that, Kymera will move the treatment into its first disease indication, hidradenitis suppurativa, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the sweat glands and has no cure.
“We expect to submit an Investigational New Drug Application, or IND, to the […] FDA, for KT-474 in the first half of 2021, and if approved, to initiate a phase 1 trial in adult healthy volunteers and hidradenitis suppurativa, or HS, and atopic dermatitis, or AD, patients shortly thereafter,” it said in its SEC filing.
“We also expect to submit INDs for degraders from our IRAKIMiD and STAT3 programs in the second half of 2021, and if approved, to initiate phase 1 trials in adult patients for each program shortly thereafter.”
Kymera, which was formed in 2015, plans to list on the Nasdaq but has not selected symbol.