From L-R: Scarlet scientific founders Ash Toye and Jan Frayne, and CEO Alistair Irvine

In wake of Ru­bius down­fall, a new biotech spin­out launch­es to 'take the next step' in red blood cell ther­a­pies

When Al­is­tair Irvine first start­ed rais­ing mon­ey for a Uni­ver­si­ty of Bris­tol spin­out named Scar­let Ther­a­peu­tics about two years ago, he got one ques­tion a lot: How was Scar­let, which is look­ing to turn red blood cells in­to ther­a­pies, go­ing to com­pete with Ru­bius Ther­a­peu­tics?

Things are look­ing dif­fer­ent as Scar­let clos­es its seed round and steps in­to the lime­light. Ru­bius, the flashy, well-fund­ed leader in the space launched out of Flag­ship, has shut down in re­cent months — which Irvine ac­knowl­edges is “ob­vi­ous­ly not nice” for the field. At the same time, it does mean a ma­jor com­peti­tor is now out of the pic­ture.

Endpoints News

To read Endpoints News become a free subscriber

Unlock this article instantly, along with access to limited free monthly articles and our suite of newsletters