Osage University Partners has helped the UT Southwestern precision medicine spinout close a round which will be used to advance and expand its pipeline of respiratory disease drug candidates.

Recode Therapeutics, a US-based biopharmaceutical spinout of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, completed an $80m series B round backed by Osage University Partners (OUP) on Wednesday. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer on Wednesday and investment adviser EcoR1 Capital co-led the round, and also included pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, Tekla Capital Management, Superstring Capital, NS Investment, OrbiMed, Vida Ventures, MPM Capital, Colt Ventures and Hunt Technology Ventures. Pfizer and Sanofi invested in the round through their respective corporate venturing arms – Pfizer Ventures and Sanofi Ventures. Founded in 2015, Recode has developed a non-viral lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery platform capable of generating a pipeline of therapies for patients with genetic respiratory diseases including cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia. The company’s precision medicine candidates are intended to address the underlying genetic cause in underserved populations and have the potential to improve the quality and length of patients’ lives. Recode plans to use the capital to drive its lead programmes in cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia into human clinical studies, further expand its drug pipeline, advance its LNP platform for organ-specific delivery of RNA and gene correction therapies and expand its internal manufacturing capabilities. OrbiMed and Colt Ventures co-led Recode’s $80m series A round in March 2020, which also featured OUP, MPM Capital Vida Ventures and Hunt Technology Ventures. The company had previously raised $2m in seed funding between 2016 and February 2019, according to regulatory filings. Rana Al-Hallaq, a partner at Pfizer Ventures and executive director of worldwide business development for Pfizer, has joined Recode’s board of directors in connection with the latest round. – A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

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