How does a biotech cel­e­brate its two-year an­niver­sary? For Im­metas Ther­a­peu­tics, it’s with an $11 mil­lion Se­ries A round and a game plan to fight age-re­lat­ed dis­ease.

Co-founders Gene Wang and David Sin­clair came to­geth­er years ago around the idea that in­flam­ma­tion is the ul­ti­mate process dri­ving age-re­lat­ed ill­ness­es, in­clud­ing can­cer. The duo launched Im­metas in 2018 and packed the staff with in­dus­try ex­perts. Wang, who says he’s al­ways had an en­tre­pre­neur­ial spir­it, has held lead roles at No­var­tis, GSK, Bris­tol My­ers Squibb and Mer­ck. He’s worked on block­buster drugs like Hu­mi­ra, Gar­dasil, Varu­bi and Zolin­za. And now, he’s chan­nel­ing that spir­it as CEO.

Sin­clair, sci­en­tif­ic ad­vi­sor, was named by Time as one of its “50 Most In­flu­en­tial Peo­ple in Health­care,” and di­rec­tor of Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty’s Paul F. Glenn Cen­ter for Bi­ol­o­gy of Ag­ing Re­search. He al­so helped found Sir­tris, the biotech that Glax­o­SmithK­line bought in 2008 for $720 mil­lion in cash, then shut down five years lat­er. Im­metas CSO Jon­ah Rainey’s re­sume in­cludes lead­ing As­traZeneca’s bis­pe­cif­ic team.

The fi­nanc­ing round — from Morn­ing­side Ven­tures — will be used for “en­gi­neer­ing the weapon” against can­cer and os­teoarthri­tis, Wang said.

Age-spe­cif­ic can­cer in­ci­dence rates spike in the 55- to 59-year-old co­hort, with the high­est in­ci­dence rates in 85- to 89-year-olds, he point­ed out in a Zoom in­ter­view. “So ag­ing has a sig­nif­i­cant role in the patho­gen­e­sis of can­cer and pro­gres­sion of can­cer. And that’s what we’re fo­cus­ing on,” he said of the com­pa­ny’s lead pro­gram.

The NJ-based biotech has six bis­pe­cif­ic can­di­dates tar­get­ing “con­trol of in­flam­ma­tion in the tu­mor mi­croen­vi­ron­ment as a way to over­come the re­sis­tance to im­mune check­point ther­a­py,” Wang said. The can­di­dates are de­signed to block pro-in­flam­ma­to­ry path­ways in the tu­mor mi­croen­vi­ron­ment, fight­ing cells that pro­mote can­cer growth and sup­press im­mune re­sponse.

“Can­cer im­munother­a­py … specif­i­cal­ly in check­point ther­a­py, rev­o­lu­tion­ized can­cer treat­ment in re­cent years, as you know. But there’s still a large un­met med­ical need and many can­cer types we call cold tu­mors, right, they do not re­spond,” Wang said. “So vast ma­jori­ties of pa­tients with can­cer still do not ben­e­fit with tra­di­tion­al can­cer im­munother­a­py,” he added lat­er.

In os­teoarthri­tis, syn­ovial in­flam­ma­tion leads to car­ti­lage ero­sion, Wang ex­plained. Im­metas is work­ing on an in­tra-ar­tic­u­lar in­jec­tion that could mute macrophage and lym­pho­cyte ac­tiv­i­ty, and down­reg­u­late pro-in­flam­ma­to­ry cy­tokine lev­els.

By the end of the year, re­searchers plan to nar­row the six can­di­dates in pre­clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment for age-re­lat­ed can­cer down to one. The com­pa­ny could sub­mit an IND ap­pli­ca­tion for the win­ner in ear­ly 2022, ac­cord­ing to Wang.

The FDA’s Arthritis Advisory Committee on Thursday voted 10 for and 8 against the approval of ChemoCentryx’s $CCXI investigational drug avacopan as a treatment for adults with a rare and serious disease known as anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-vasculitis.

The vote on whether the FDA should approve the drug was preceded by a split vote of 9 to 9 on whether the efficacy data support approval, and 10 to 8 that the safety profile of avacopan is adequate enough to support approval.

Long the bane of the FDA’s existence, compounding pharmacies have seen a minor resurgence in the past year as short-term saviors for hospital drug shortages. Now, a 503(b) company specializing in hospital meds has earned a big backer to keep expanding its 200-drug strong portfolio.

Goldman Sachs and Owl Rock Capital Partners have doled out a $275 million debt loan to QuVa Pharma, a 503(b)-certified outsourcing facility providing compounded drugs to hospitals, the company said Thursday.

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Another biotech SPAC deal has landed as the glut of blank-check companies continues to make waves in the industry.

Thursday’s winner is Jasper Therapeutics, joining forces with Amplitude Healthcare Acquisition Corp. in a $100 million reverse-merger, Jasper announced. The deal also comes with a PIPE financing of an additional $100 million, setting Jasper up with a $490 million market cap once the merger closes in the third quarter.