Aera Therapeutics emerged from stealth mode Thursday with a platform based on the work of Feng Zhang, Ph.D. and ex-Alnylam executive Akin Akinc at the helm.
Akin Akinc, Ph.D., CEO, Area Therapeutics/company courtesy
An Alynylam vet and CRISPR big wig have joined forces against one of genetic medicine’s biggest inhibitions – delivery, as Aera Therapeutics emerged from stealth mode Thursday to take on the challenge.
Fueled by major investors ARCH, GV and Lux, the fledgling biotech scooped up $193 million in a combined Series A and B financing. Aera’s stated goal is to solve delivery challenges to expand the reach of genetic medicines.
Leading the charge is Akin Akinc, Ph.D., who left his seat as head of Alnylam’s oncology unit after close to two decades with the company. He’s joined by Alnylam’s former founding CEO, John Maraganore – who will chair Aera’s board as an ARCH venture partner.
Well-known MIT scientist Feng Zhang, Ph.D. will bring scientific gravitas.
Zhang founded Editas Medicine in 2013 along with Jennifer Doudna and other colleagues and has cofounded three more gene editing biotechs. Aera was founded in 2021 with a new genetic medicine delivery platform developed in Zhang’s lab.
Genetic medicines include a payload and delivery system and have significant potential for a laundry list of conditions and diseases. While technologies like siRNA, ASOs, mRNA, DNA and gene editors have advanced rapidly, delivery systems have remained stalled.
Current approaches are often limited to either diseases of the liver or leverage ex vivo manufacturing, which comes with its own bottlenecks and poor accessibility. Delivery approaches are limited by safety and payload constraints, preventing the broad application that these medicines could have.
Zhang’s proprietary protein nanoparticle delivery platform self-assembles to form “capsid-like structures” capable of transferring nucleic acid cargo. His team published their findings in 2021.
Aera is also licensing a therapeutic platform of novel, programmable gene editing enzymes. The hypothesis holds that the compact sizing of these enzymes can help overcome the packaging and delivery challenges of current gene editing efforts.
The company’s current focus is advancing the platform and no therapeutic targets have yet been identified, Akinc told BioSpace in an e-mail.
The team will “explore a variety of genetic medicine modalities” and “prioritize applications based on patient impact,” he said.
Aera’s $193 million raise in the face of the rising capital costs speaks to investor faith in the team assembled here and Zhang’s platform.
“We’re in a ‘risk-off’ environment,” Mike Rice, founding partner of Life Sci Advisors told BioSpace in a previous interview.
While there is plenty of money out there, investors are being more selective. It won’t be “one of these rising tides that everybody’s going to benefit from,” Rice said. Only “higher quality” biotech companies will be rewarded.
