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.

Back in December 2017, as the cell therapy world was still basking in the virtually back-to-back approvals of two pioneering CAR-Ts, researchers at Seattle Children’s Research Institute reported a scientific first in a different corner of the field: engineer B cells to treat disease.

The team, led by David Rawlings and Richard James, eventually worked with Longwood Fund to start a biotech around those findings. And now Atlas Venture and RA Capital Management are coming on board to lead a $52 million launch round, joined by Alta Partners, for Be Biopharma.

Several countries had restarted their portions of AstraZeneca’s global Phase III Covid-19 vaccine trial after the study was paused worldwide in early September, but the US notably stayed on the sidelines — until now. Friday afternoon the pharma giant announced the all clear from US regulators. And on top of that, J&J announced Friday evening that it’s preparing to resume its own Phase III vaccine trial.

Since before Ilan Ganot started Solid Bio to develop a gene therapy for kids like his son, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Ultragenyx CEO Emil Kakkis has been watching and advising the former investment banker as he navigated the deep waters of drug development.

Just as Solid is getting back up on its feet after a yearlong clinical hold, Kakkis has decided to jump in for a formal alliance.

With a $40 million upfront, Ultragenyx is grabbing 14.45% of Solid’s shares $SLDB and the rights to its microdystrophin construct for use in combination with AAV8 vectors. Solid’s lead program, which utilizes AAV9, remains unaffected. The company also retains rights to other applications of its transgene.