Biotechs that announced series B financing this year and are expanding their workforces include one that raised $2.1 billion and has partnerships with Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis.
When making their target list of prospective employers, biopharma professionals may want to include companies that recently received series B financing. This second round of funding is awarded to businesses that are past the initial startup stage, have achieved key milestones and want to accelerate growth.
Here are three biotechs that announced series B raises this year and are hiring.
Tenpoint Therapeutics: $85 million
Tenpoint Therapeutics is developing treatments to rejuvenate vision in the aging eye. By understanding patient needs and partnering with eye care professionals, the Warren, New Jersey–based company hopes to set a new standard for care in presbyopia, an age-related condition affecting near vision.
The biotech’s pipeline consists of three programs, including Yuvezzi, which received FDA approval in January for the treatment of presbyopia. The remaining programs, both at the preclinical stage, are TPT-161 and TPT-005 for the treatment of presbyopia/cataracts and geographic atrophy, respectively.
In January, Tenpoint announced it had raised $85 million in series B funding and entered into a $150 million nondilutive senior secured term loan facility with Hercules Capital. The biotech has been using the combined $235 million to accelerate commercialization of Yuvezzi. In March, Tenpoint announced the dual-agent eye drop was available nationwide across the United States. In August, it revealed a strategic partnership with Lupin to commercialize Yuvezzi in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
Tenpoint is hiring for several positions, including thought leader liaison for the West region, a remote position based in California; area sales director for the Southeast, a remote position based in either Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina or Virginia; and specialty sales manager for Portland, a remote position based in Portland.
Osanni Bio: $190 million
San Francisco–based Osanni Bio is focused on reinventing the discovery and development of new medicines by approaching the science of disease with modern technology and a beginner’s mindset. Its leadership team includes Founder and CEO Michael Ackermann, a serial entrepreneur, inventor and scientist who is also co-founder and chairman of Tarsus Pharmaceuticals and Oyster Point Pharma. In addition, Ackermann is co-founder and former CEO of Oculeve, which was acquired by Allergan, an AbbVie company, and Presidio Medical.
Osanni’s team is charged with discovering scientific insights, designing novel drug concepts and advancing programs to a meaningful proof-of-concept. Once a program is sufficiently derisked, it moves into the biotech’s ecosystem of affiliate companies, called “avians.” Each avian is equipped with the specialized talent, capital and strategic support needed to scale. Osanni is advancing programs in ophthalmology, cardiology and beyond.
In June, the biotech announced it had closed $190 million in series B financing. Osanni noted it will use the funds to advance its pipeline of programs and fuel the scaling of its discovery and development process.
The biotech is hiring for several positions, including nonclinical study manager, principal applied AI engineer and manager, product quality lead.
Isomorphic Labs: $2.1 billion
Based in London, Isomorphic Labs aims to apply its artificial intelligence (AI) drug design engine, IsoDDE, to deliver biomedical breakthroughs and advance drug design programs across multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities.
The biotech has strategic research partnerships with Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis. The partnership with Lilly focuses on discovering small molecule therapeutics against multiple undisclosed targets, while the one with J&J is dedicated to developing new therapeutics across various modalities, with an eye toward addressing challenging diseases traditionally out of reach. The collaboration with Novartis began with work on discovery of small molecule therapeutics against three challenging targets and has expanded to add three additional research programs.
In May, Isomorphic announced it had raised $2.1 billion in series B funding. The company intends to use the financing for continued development and deployment of IsoDDE so it can accelerate and expand its pipeline of therapeutic programs toward the clinic. The raise is also expected to support hiring needs.
Isomorphic is looking to fill about two dozen positions, including application support engineer (third party systems) in London; associate director, clinical program management, in Cambridge, Massachusetts; bioinformatics engineer in London; head of medicinal chemistry, drug design, in London; and research leader/senior scientist (in vitro/cellular pharmacology) in Cambridge.
