BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Sept. 9 Quick Takes: Obsidian readies for IPO with $115M crossover round

Plus: Venture rounds for Lexeo, Evommune, Alamar, and setbacks for Humanigen, Sanofi and more

September 10, 2021 1:44 AM UTC

Cell and gene therapy play Obsidian Therapeutics Inc. looks set to seek a public listing after raising $115 million in a series B round led by The Column Group Crossover Fund. Other new investors included RA Capital, Surveyor Capital, Cowen Healthcare Investments, Deep Track Capital, Logos Capital, Pivotal BioVenture Partners, Samsara BioCapital and Soleus Capital. Existing investors Atlas Venture, Vertex Ventures HC, Amgen Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX) also participated. Obsidian’s lead tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) program, cytoTIL15, is expected to enter the clinic next year.

Adding to an $85 million January series A, Lexeo Therapeutics raised $100 million in a series B led by D1 Capital Partners and Eventide Asset Management. Also backing the round were CAM Capital, Verition Fund Management, Laurion Capital Management, Gray’s Creek Capital Partners, and existing investors Longitude Capital, Omega Funds, Lundbeckfonden Ventures, PBM Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Woodline Partners LP, Invus Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments. The company has three lead AAV-mediated gene therapy programs: LX2006, which is in preclinical testing for cardiomyopathy associated with Friedreich’s ataxia, and LX1004 for CLN2 Batten disease and LX1001 for APOE4-associated Alzheimer’s disease, both of which are in Phase I/II testing. The company is also developing recently acquired cardiac gene therapies from Stelios Therapeutics Inc. and additional preclinical programs targeting Alzheimer’s disease...