Osage University Partners has thrown its weight behind a series A2 round for Artizan, which is advancing work undertaken at Yale University.

Artizan Biosciences, a US-based developer of treatments for inflammatory diseases that was spun out of Yale University, has collected $11m in a series A2 round backed by spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners (OUP). Biopharmaceutical firm Biohaven Therapeutics and Hatteras Venture Partners co-led the round, which also attracted Connecticut Innovations and Elm Street Ventures. Artizan is working on therapies for inflammatory diseases linked to the intestinal microbiota. It will use the financing to advance the preclinical development of its lead programme aimed at inflammatory bowel disease and to explore other disease targets. The spinout entered into an option and licence agreement that gives Biohaven the rights to exercise an option on up to three assets aimed at inflammatory bowel disease and commercialise them in the US. The two companies are also working on a collaboration deal focused on neurological diseases and have so far negotiated undisclosed financial terms. Donnie McGrath, chief of corporate strategy and business development at Biohaven, and private investor Seth Rudnick have joined Artizan’s board of directors. OUP participated in a series A round closed in mid-2019, when Elm Street and pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson’s Johnson & Johnson Innovation—JJDC unit also invested. A contemporaneous report in the Wall Street Journal suggested the series A round consisted of more than one tranche and was worth $12m altogether, but further details could not be confirmed. Artizan collected an undisclosed sum from life sciences company Malin and Hatteras Venture Partners in 2017. Its backers also include medicine provider Brii Biosciences, which has entered into a collaboration agreement to commercialise three drug candidates in China.

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Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).