Nine months removed from Allergan’s rich $2.1 billion all-cash buyout, some of the top execs at Kythera have moved on to launch Sienna Biopharmaceuticals to develop a new kind of tech. And they’re moving on from double chins to other aspects of facial cosmetic treatments.
The company, based in Westlake Village, CA, raised $34 million in an A round led by Arch Venture Partners, which has spearheaded a variety of biotech investments over the years. Altitude Life Science Ventures, Partner Fund Management, and Venvest Capital also joined in. Arch’s Robert Nelsen--a high profile player in biotech venture circles--has joined the board.
One of the key players at Sienna is Todd Harris, who heads up Sienna Labs. A former NIH fellow and MIT postdoc (who also completed a stint at McKinsey), Harris has been working on a topical solution that can be managed by laser tech and targets microstructures in the skin. The big idea here is that the right tech can eliminate acne and permanently remove hair.
Traditional biotech may tackle thornier medical issues, but advanced cosmetic tech has been a growing, and lucrative, field in the industry. It also has interesting ties to one of the upstarts coming into view which are tackling anti-aging.
Allergan (which markets Botox) not only acquired Kythera, it also just snagged Topokine for $85 million upfront, adding a new experimental treatment for eliminating bags under the eyes. That move has built a whole portfolio of technologies for facial reengineering.
The team in charge of Sienna has kept close tabs on all of it. Keith Leonard, the executive chairman at Sienna, was the former CEO of Kythera and is the current chairman of Unity, another Arch startup that is focusing on eliminating senescent cells to slow aging. CEO Frederick Beddingfield was the former CMO at Kythera.