eGenesis, a biotechnology company that is developing human-compatible engineered organs to address the global organ shortage, announced today the closing of a $191 million Series D financing. The funding was led by Lux Capital, with participation from existing investors ARCH Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Farallon Capital Management, Alta Partners, Fresenius Medical Care Ventures, and Leaps by Bayer, and new investors DaVita, Eisai Innovation, NATCO Pharmaceuticals, and Parkwood Corporation.
The proceeds of this funding round will be used to advance the company’s lead product candidate, EGEN-2784, to a first-in-human study for kidney transplant. And the funding will also be used to advance pipeline programs as well as scale production.
In March 2024, eGenesis had announced the world’s first successful porcine kidney transplant in a living patient. And the transplant was authorized by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) under the Expanded Access pathway and performed by a surgical team at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Over 800,000 people in the U.S., and millions globally, suffer from end-stage renal disease or kidney failure, a life-threatening condition for which transplantation is considered the gold standard treatment option to improve quality of life and outcomes. But the demand for organs outpaces supply, with more than 90,000 individuals on the kidney waitlist and only approximately 25,000 kidney transplants performed each year.
The eGenesis donor kidney (EGEN-2784) is the company’s lead candidate for kidney transplant and carries three classes of edits: 1.) knock out of three genes involved in the synthesis of glycan antigens implicated in hyperacute rejection, 2.) insertion of seven human transgenes involved in the regulation of pathways that modulate rejection: inflammation, innate immunity, coagulation, and complement, and 3.) inactivation of the endogenous retroviruses in the porcine genome.
KEY QUOTES:
“This financing demonstrates the confidence that investors have in cross-species transplantation as a potential solution to the global organ crisis and in eGenesis as the leader in this sector. We are thrilled to work with Lux Capital and this world-class syndicate to advance our lead program to formal clinical trials. With this support, we are one step closer to bringing a solution to help patients suffering from organ failure.”
- Mike Curtis, President & CEO, eGenesis
“Decades of progress in cross-species transplantation, accelerated by the evolution of modern genome editing tools and next-generation sequencing, have enabled eGenesis to advance genetically engineered organs to the clinical setting. What was once science fiction is now science fact. We are thrilled to support eGenesis in advancing this pivotal modality to address one of the most intractable challenges facing medicine today – the global organ shortage crisis.”
- Peter Hebert, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Lux Capital
