TRex Bio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on precision immunoregulatory medicines derived from tissue regulatory T cell biology, announced it closed an oversubscribed $50 million financing to support clinical and preclinical pipeline development and expand work on its proprietary Deep Biology Platform. The round brought in new investors Janus Henderson Investors, Balyasny Asset Management L.P., and Affinity Asset Advisors, alongside existing backers Alexandria Venture Investments, Avego BioScience Capital, Delos Capital, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson Innovation JJDC, Pfizer Ventures, Polaris Partners, and SV Health Investors.
The company said the expanded syndicate reflects continued support for its tissue-targeted Treg approach and progress toward developing Treg-based medicines for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
TRexBio said proceeds will primarily support continued clinical development of TRB 061, a TNFR2 agonist designed to selectively activate regulatory T cells in inflammatory diseases affecting skin and other barrier tissues, including atopic dermatitis. The company said the single-ascending-dose portion of the ongoing Phase 1a/b trial has been completed, and the multiple-ascending-dose portion is underway.
The financing will also support advancing two mechanistically distinct preclinical programs, TRB 071 and TRB 081, toward the clinic for multiple inflammatory diseases. TRexBio said it expects to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials for TRB 071 and TRB 081 in 2027. The company said all three programs emerged from its platform, which combines computational and functional analyses of patient samples to map tissue Treg behavior and link it to disease processes for target discovery and candidate development.
TRexBio described TRB 061 as a purpose-engineered, wholly owned TNFR2 agonist intended to reduce inflammation and promote barrier tissue repair by preferentially expanding tissue-licensed Treg subpopulations most relevant to immunoregulation. The company said TNFR2 is a co-stimulatory receptor preferentially expressed on the most suppressive Tregs in skin and gut, and that TRB 061 is designed to precisely mimic the natural TNF ligand through selective TNFR2 agonism.
The company also highlighted the broader unmet need in atopic dermatitis, describing it as a chronic inflammatory skin disease marked by rash, itching, and barrier dysfunction that affects a large global population and can create systemic immune activation and quality of life impairment in moderate to severe cases. TRexBio said that while approved biologics have improved outcomes for some patients, discontinuation rates remain significant, reinforcing the need for more durable and effective options.
KEY QUOTES
“We are grateful for the support of this group of leading healthcare investors, who share our conviction in the potential for Treg modulation to transform the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”
“We are grateful for the support of this group of leading healthcare investors, who share our conviction in the potential for Treg modulation to transform the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. TRB-061 and our other pipeline programs are designed to apply decades of insight into Treg-mediated immune regulation toward a more precise treatment approach to meet significant unmet needs in immune-mediated diseases. This additional capital enables us to execute our clinical plans for TRB-061 while advancing multiple programs toward the clinic.”
Johnston Erwin, CEO, TRexBio
