RA Capital Management and Rock Springs Capital have co-led a series B round for the gene editing technology developer spun out of Stanford six months ago.
Graphite Bio, a US-based gene editing spinout of Stanford University, completed a $150m series B round yesterday co-led by RA Capital Management and Rock Springs Capital.
Cormorant Asset Management, Deerfield Management, Federated Hermes Kaufmann Funds, Fidelity, Janus Henderson Investors, Logos Capital, OrbiMed, Perceptive Advisors, Surveyor Capital, Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Samsara BioCapital and Versant Ventures also contributed to the round.
Graphite Bio is working on therapies that repair genetic defects at the source, precisely deliver genetic cargo and engineer new cellular effector functions. The company is focused on serious conditions, and its lead asset, GPH101, is aimed at sickle cell disease.
The series B capital will allow Graphite Bio to launch a phase 1/2 trial for GPH101, having secured investigational new drug (IND) clearance from the US regulator.
The spinout is also in the process of concluding IND-enabling studies for treatments aimed at severe combined immune deficiency with IL2RG deficiency (also known as XSCID) and types 1 and 3 of Gaucher disease.
Josh Lehrer, chief executive of Graphite Bio, said: “We are gratified to receive the tremendous support from this group of world-class investors who share in our ambitious vision. This milestone provides further validation for our highly differentiated gene integration platform and enables us to advance our pipeline through initial clinical milestones.
“To date, we have delivered on our commitment to advance our pipeline with urgency, always with an intent focus on delivering truly innovative therapies to patients.
“We are grateful for the confidence of our investors, which will support our clinical trial in sickle cell disease and advance our XSCID and Gaucher programmes toward the clinic.”
Graphite Bio launched in September 2020 with $45m of series A funding co-led by Versant Ventures and Samsara BioCapital.
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).
