Potent play

Strategic investors Merck Serono Ventures and Novo A/S launched Galecto Biotech AB last week with a seed round of more than €5 million ($6.5 million) that is expected to get the biotech into the clinic with what might be the most potent molecule in development for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Galecto is developing modulators of galectins, a group of proteins implicated in several disease processes. The lead compound is TD139, a galectin-3 (LGALS3) inhibitor that blocked fibrosis development in an animal model of IPF...