Eli Lilly,Novartis AG-Backed Startup, Aeglea, Nabs $44 Million
March 23, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
AUSTIN, Texas – Pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Company and Novartis AG were part of a group that backed startup Aeglea BioTherapeutics in $44 million in Series B financing, the company announced Monday.
Founded in 2013, Aeglea is developing treatments for inborn errors of metabolism and therapies targeting tumor metabolism. The $44 million investment will be used to support the continued development of Aeglea’s pipeline of engineered human enzymes that target diseases at the extremes of abnormal metabolism. By degrading specific amino acids in circulation, these novel enzymes are able to address inborn errors of metabolism characterized by excess amino acid levels and exploit abnormal amino acid metabolism in tumor cells.
“New treatments for individuals with inborn errors of metabolism or hematologic and solid malignancies are urgently needed, and this financing enables us to advance our lead molecule into the clinical setting as well as pursue the preclinical development of our pipeline products to address significant unmet medical needs,” said Aeglea Chief Executive Officer David G. Lowe.
Aeglea anticipates its lead drug candidate, AEB1102 (optimized human Arginase I), will enter Phase I/II clinical trials sometime late in 2015. AEB1102 is being developed as enzyme replacement therapy in patients with the rare inborn error of metabolism hyperargininemia (HA) caused by Arginase I deficiency, which occurs due to excess levels of arginine in the blood. Left untreated, HA may lead to spasticity, loss of ambulation and severe intellectual disability. AEB1102 is expected to degrade circulating arginine and return blood levels to the normal physiological range, which could halt progression of the disease.
Aeglea also expects to begin Phase I trials for AEB1102 in oncology, targeting abnormal tumor metabolism characterized by arginine dependence, later in the year as well.
Aeglea’s drug development centers on human-engineered enzymes that degrade the amino acids arginine, cysteine/cystine, or methionine. The enzymes were developed at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to AEB1102, AEB4104 is being evaluated as a potential treatment for the inborn error of metabolism homocystinuria, AEB3103 is being evaluated for treatment of hematologic and solid malignancies and AEB2109, which degrades methionine, is being evaluated for the treatment of solid tumors. Aeglea’s pipeline of drugs aims to destroy cancerous tumors through deprivation of arginine, cysteine/cystine, and methionine.
In addition to Eli Lilly and Novartis, Aeglea was backed in its financing by OrbiMed, Jennison Associates (on behalf of clients), Venrock, RA Capital Management, Rock Springs Capital, Ally Bridge Group and Cowen Investments.
In 2014, Lilly Ventures and Novartis Bioventures, the funding arms of the two pharmaceutical companies, backed Aeglea with $12 million in Series A financing.