Garuda Therapeutics – a biotechnology company creating off-the-shelf and HSC therapies for a multitude of blood disorders – announced the completion of an approximately $50 million Series A-1 funding round. Investors included OrbiMed, Northpond Ventures, and Cormorant Asset Management, with new strategic investment from Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd., a Japan-based Global Specialty Pharmaceutical Company.
This funding validates the growing need for an immediate, off-the-shelf, and cost-effective solution to stem cell transplants. Garuda’s technology enables self-renewing blood stem cells that are durable, human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-compatible, and transgene-free.
As the industry’s potential first off-the-shelf offering, Garuda’s technology has the opportunity to address a multitude of unique blood disorders and eliminate dependency on donor blood cells. The Series A-1 funding supports the advancement of Garuda’s pipeline into the clinic, assembling an experienced team, scaling its in-house manufacturing, and other general operating activities.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are thrilled to have closed this Series A-1 round. Garuda’s first off-the-shelf hematopoietic stem cell transplantation candidate has the potential to HLA-match approximately 12% of the global population without the need for a donor. Additional drug candidates, leveraging the same technology, are aimed to grow the HLA-matched eligible patient population to up to half of the global population for treatment of a range of diseases where a reset of bone marrow function is needed. This funding will enable us to accelerate clinical development of our novel technology and move us closer to delivering transformative therapies to patients where there is a great medical need.”
“Our first product candidate will be evaluated in HLA-matched patients with bone marrow failure syndrome and beta thalassemia. We intend to provide additional detail on our emerging pipeline, based on our proprietary technology, as appropriate.”
– Avanish Vellanki, CEO of Garuda Therapeutics
“We are honored to be backing Garuda as they disrupt the market with their innovative readily available, off-the-shelf technology. the company’s vision for the future of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without the need for stem cell donors make this a compelling investment opportunity.”
– Carl Gordon, Ph.D., C.F.A., Managing Partner at OrbiMed
