Velia Therapeutics has announced it is winding down its operations while staying loyal to the therapeutic potential of microproteins.
Founded in 2021, Velia’s mission was to take forward a discovery platform designed to “mine the dark matter of the human proteome for novel therapeutic targets.” The San Diego-based company has been recruiting its leadership team in recent years, including former head of Gilead’s R&D John McHutchison, M.D., becoming Velia’s CEO in 2023 and co-founder Alan Saghatelian, Ph.D., being appointed chief technology officer last year.
“Our strategy is to discover and characterize disease-relevant proteins across the human proteome and generate first-in-class, transformative therapeutics,” according to the company’s website. “Our unique approach combines deep founder expertise in protein discovery, functional genomics, and AI to unveil important therapeutic nodes.”
But despite these bold ambitions and the backing of investors The Column Group and Foresite Capital, Velia announced in a LinkedIn post yesterday that it is winding down operations.
“The decision is unrelated to the therapeutic potential of microproteins, our platform and our scientific progress,” the biotech added in the Jan. 8 post. “We are optimistic that our efforts at Velia will inspire future important innovations in proteomics.”
Velia’s website didn’t shed much light on the company’s pipeline, but the biotech has previously said that its initial focus had been auto-immunity and oncology, with ambitions to expand into other therapeutic areas.