GlycoEra’s lead candidate targets IgG4 autoantibodies, potentially addressing autoimmune diseases such as muscle-specific kinase myasthenia gravis and pemphigus.
GlycoEra closed its series B financing round Tuesday with $130 million in proceeds, which it plans to use to build out its precision immunology pipeline.
GlycoEra will funnel part of the money to advance its lead asset, an IgG4-targeted protein degrader dubbed GE8820 that selectively targets and depletes IgG4 autoantibodies. GE8820 works “with a speed, depth, and high level of selectivity not attainable with current modalities and without immunosuppression,” the startup stated in its release on Tuesday.
Its mechanism of action could position the protein degrader as a therapy for autoimmune diseases such as muscle-specific kinase myasthenia gravis, pemphigus and primary membranous nephropathy. GlycoEra expects to start first-in-human studies for GE8820 later this year, CEO Ganesh Kaundiny said in a statement.
Aside from GE8820, GlycoEra will also use the raise to bring a second program to the clinic and further develop its pipeline of extracellular protein degraders, with a particular focus on immunology indications.
Several high-profile backers participated in GlycoEra’s oversubscribed series B. The round was led by Novo Holdings and included other big names such as Roche Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sofinnova Partners and LifeArc Ventures.
GlycoEra joins a crowded space with several big-name players. In April 2024, for instance, Novartis paid $150 million upfront and promised up to $1.01 billion in milestones to gain access to Arvinas’ oral protein degrader for prostate cancer. Nearly a year earlier, Arvinas gave up another of its protein degraders to Pfizer, receiving $650 million upfront and eligibility for $1.4 billion in milestones.
Elsewhere, BMS is in a multi-year partnership with Evotec, which the companies expanded in January 2022 to cover protein degraders for neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Molecular glues, a specific subtype of the protein degradation technology, are also on the upswing, with many Big Pharma companies pumping billions of dollars into the space. Last week, Roche’s Genentech signed an agreement worth a potential $2 billion with Orionis Biosciences to develop monovalent molecular glues for cancer targets.
Earlier this year, Eli Lilly likewise put $1.25 billion on the line to link up with Magnet Biomedicine and its TrueGlue discovery platform, similarly with a focus on cancer. AbbVie also joined the bandwagon this year with a $1.64 billion commitment to Neomorph to develop molecular glues for oncology and immunology targets.
