From ADCs and radiopharmaceuticals to cell and gene therapies, eager young startups are betting on advances in biopharma’s most competitive therapeutic spaces—and attracting dollars from Big Pharma.
The members of BioSpace’s NextGen Class of 2025 are not afraid of a challenge, diving into and tackling hurdles in some of biopharma’s most competitive spaces.
For 11 years, BioSpace has highlighted the most anticipated new biopharma startups from across the U.S. This year’s class, selected from companies that announced initial, seed or series A rounds between October 2023 and September 2024, features 25 companies whose financing, collaborations, pipeline, growth potential and innovation stood out among the rest. And notably, many of them are diving into sectors that are already quite crowded.
Let’s start with cell and gene therapies. From the first CRISPR-based therapy to the first tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes treatment, the past two years have unleashed a watershed of approvals of these 21st-century medicines, and several members of our class of 2025 are looking to be a part of this wave.
While rich with potential for rare and common diseases alike, cell and gene therapies come with costs, manufacturing processes and immunogenicity risks that can be prohibitive. For example, Orchard Therapeutics’ metachromatic leukodystrophy gene therapy, approved in March 2024, carries a $4.25 million price tag. Several of our 2025 class are deploying novel methods to try to address these challenges.
Boston-based Exsilio Therapeutics is using mRNA technology to deliver therapeutics via lipid nanoparticles, an approach the company claims enables repeat dosing. Helmed by former Moderna Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks, the biotech emerged from stealth and brought in $82 million in series A financing in June 2024. Using mRNA technology will allow a variety of cost efficiencies, Zaks told BioSpace at the time. “The process can be done in pretty small containers or vats, and it takes a much shorter timeframe than typical biologics.”
Meanwhile, Philadelphia-headquartered Latus Bio is going up against a particularly formidable foe, creating gene therapies for CNS diseases. Designed to accurately target tissues and reduce unwanted interactions, Latus’ technology “aims to minimize the risks of immunogenicity and toxicity, and to deliver the payload exactly where it’s needed,” according to its website.
On the cell therapy side, George Church’s GC Therapeutics (GCTx) launched in September 2024 with $65 million in series A funds to develop off-the-shelf cell therapies from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), while San Francisco and Kyoto, Japan–based Shinobi Therapeutics took in $51 million in series A funds in December 2023 to usher its first off-the-shelf cell therapy program, aimed at treating GPC3+ solid tumor cancers, toward the clinic. GCTx owns technology it says could help overcome the development and scaling complexities associated with cell therapy, whereas Shinobi is developing therapies that the company claims work with, instead of against, the immune system.
Another of 2024’s key therapeutic areas, radiopharmaceuticals, have increasingly become the modality du jour in the cancer space. Chasing market leader Novartis, other Big Pharmas such as Sanofi and Eli Lilly are investing heavily in radiopharma, making it a hot therapeutic area for biotech. In July, Lilly struck a $1 billion deal with 2025 NextGen member Radionetics Oncology, a San Diego–based company that had announced a $52.5 million series A just a few months earlier to develop small molecule radiopharmaceuticals against novel cancer targets from a broad class of surface receptors. Other radiopharma-focused biotechs, including fellow NextGen company ARTBIO, which raised $90 million in series A funds in December 2023, could soon be fielding buyout offers of their own—if they aren’t already.
And we can’t forget antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), another hot commodity in the cancer space that featured prominently in BioSpace’s NextGen Class of 2025. Co-founded by Stanford chemist and Nobel Laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, Firefly Bio’s novel platform merges ADCs with protein degraders. Firefly debuted in February 2024 with $94 million in series A funds and backing from, again, Eli Lilly. The previous month, New York City–headquartered OnCusp Therapeutics raised $100 million in a series A round, with support from none other than Novo Holdings, the parent company of Lilly’s chief obesity rival Novo Nordisk.
On that note, obesity startups also have a prominent place on our 2025 list. While Novo and Lilly currently have a stranglehold on the obesity/weight loss market, we highlight two companies looking to break through their grip. Making this year’s biggest splash was Metsera, which burst onto the scene in April 2024 with $290 million in financing and followed that up with a $215 million raise just seven months later. Meanwhile, Lilly-backed OrsoBio netted $60 million in series A financing in November 2023 to develop therapies focused on obesity and associated metabolic disorders.
Finally, some members of BioSpace’s NextGen Class of 2025 are taking on the particularly thorny challenge of rare diseases. Not only are they biologically complex, but the market for these indications is often uncertain.
Diagonal Therapeutics launched in April 2024 with $128 million in Series A funds to develop agonist antibodies for rare diseases, including a severe bleeding disorder called hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. Meanwhile, with a whopping $300 million, BridgeBio spinout GondolaBio is targeting rare, genetic diseases, and fellow West Coast biotech Rampart Bioscience closed an $85 million series A in October 2023 to support its focus on next-generation biologics for rare diseases.
As we’ve seen so many times before in this industry, competition begets progress, and I’m looking forward to seeing that play out again with this year’s NextGen class.
For a complete list of NextGen 2025 companies, click here.
The NextGen Class of 2025 is brought to you by Pliancy.
