Acelyrin raises $300 million to fight psoriatic arthritis
- Dan Primack, author of Axios Pro Rata
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Acelyrin, a Los Angeles-based biotech focused on inflammatory diseases like psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis, raised $300 million in Series C funding led by Access Biotechnology.
Why it matters: This is a departure from biotech VC's current obsession with proprietary drug discovery platforms. Acelyrin bought its lead candidate and is focused on later-stage development and commercialization. It's not a unique strategy, but one that's become overshadowed.
Other investors include Matrix Capital Management, Westlake Village BioPartners, Cowen Healthcare Investments, Decheng Capital, Marshall Wace, OrbiMed, Samsara BioCapital, Surveyor Capital, Tybourne Capital Management and venBio Partners.
More, from FierceBiotech's James Waldron: "Any biotech that can rake in half a billion dollars from investors in 12 months is clearly doing something right .... The company’s lead asset, izokibep, is an antibody mimetic interleukin-17A (IL-17A) inhibitor designed to overcome the limitations of monoclonal antibodies. The likes of Novartis and Eli Lilly have validated IL-17 with drugs like Cosentyx and Taltz, respectively. Acelyrin will be hoping for similar success."