Peter Ding, Allorion Therapeutics co-founder and CEO
Precision-med biotech Allorion Therapeutics is expanding — and now has tens of millions of dollars more to work with.
The Natick, MA-based company announced in a statement this morning that it closed a Series A round, bringing in $40 million. Shanghai VC Qiming Venture Partners led the round, which also includes a number of both new and old investors — Octagon Capital, IDG Capital and TF Capital, to name a few.
According to Allorion, which has operations in both Massachusetts and Guangzhou, China, the $40 million will go toward preclinical projects, IND-enabling studies and IND applications of two drug candidates in China and the US. It also includes investing in its own internal drug discovery platform.
The biotech focuses on discovering small molecules specifically against cancer and autoimmune diseases — but to what extent remains unclear. Allorion has not yet named any targets or programs it is prioritizing.
However, the company says there is an internal focus on ‘chemical libraries,’ emphasizing allosteric and covalent modulators, with a hint of AI through ‘optimizing the libraries through the aid of AI.’
Allorion started up close to 18 months ago in June 2020, when co-founders Peter Ding and Fang Li got together. Ding, currently Allorion’s CEO, came over from another company where he was a co-founder — Curegenix, where he was also head of R&D. Li joined up as CSO after leaving his position as the head of translational and computational biology at Cambridge precision oncology player Tango Therapeutics.
And last December, Allorion got their internal labs up and running at their sites in MA and Guangzhou, according to a company statement.
‘We have confidence in the team’s strong R&D capabilities. We hope to support Allorion to grow into a globally-recognized company and improve patients’ life quality,’ Ding said in a prepared statement.
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Joan Perelló beat all the odds with his little Spanish biotech startup Sanifit.
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Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca CEO (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
While Europe is in the midst of a massive fourth Covid-19 surge, the UK has largely avoided the high levels of hospitalizations and deaths seen on the rest of the continent. And AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot suggested Tuesday the reason for Britain’s better fortunes could be his company’s vaccine.
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Emma Walmsley, GlaxoSmithKline CEO (Fang Zhe/Xinhua/Alamy Live News)
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Most people know if they’re ‘Team Pfizer’ or ‘Team Moderna,’ but few know if they got the Comirnaty or Spikevax Covid-19 vaccine. Those are the brand names of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, respectively, however they have yet to take hold with consumers, media or even medical professionals.
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In an effort to up its development of microbial-derived proteins, Swiss CDMO Lonza will invest in its manufacturing capacities in its home country.
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Stephen Hahn and Donald Trump, AP Images
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Paul Hudson, Sanofi CEO (Eric Piermont/AFP via Getty Images)
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