New funding will accelerate Garuda’s rapid growth and fund development of off-the-shelf hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) therapies for a multitude of severe and life-threatening diseases
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Garuda Therapeutics (Garuda), a biotechnology company creating off-the-shelf, HSC therapies for a multitude of blood disorders, today announced the successful completion of an approximately $50 million Series A-1 funding round. Investors included OrbiMed, Northpond Ventures and Cormorant Asset Management, with new strategic investment from Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd., a Japan-based Global Specialty Pharmaceutical Company.
This investment underscores the growing need for an immediate, off-the-shelf and cost-effective solution to stem cell transplants. Garuda’s technology enables self-renewing blood stem cells that are durable, human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-compatible, and transgene-free. As the industry’s potential first off-the-shelf offering, Garuda’s technology has the opportunity to address a multitude of unique blood disorders and eliminate dependency on donor blood cells. The Series A-1 funding will support the advancement of Garuda’s pipeline into the clinic, assembling an experienced team, scaling its in-house manufacturing, and other general operating activities.
“We are thrilled to have closed this Series A-1 round,” said Avanish Vellanki, CEO of Garuda Therapeutics. “Garuda’s first off-the-shelf hematopoietic stem cell transplantation candidate has the potential to HLA-match approximately 12% of the global population without the need for a donor. Additional drug candidates, leveraging the same technology, are aimed to grow the HLA-matched eligible patient population to up to half of the global population for treatment of a range of diseases where a reset of bone marrow function is needed. This funding will enable us to accelerate clinical development of our novel technology and move us closer to delivering transformative therapies to patients where there is a great medical need.”
Mr. Vellanki continued, “Our first product candidate will be evaluated in HLA-matched patients with bone marrow failure syndrome and beta thalassemia. We intend to provide additional detail on our emerging pipeline, based on our proprietary technology, as appropriate.”
“We are honored to be backing Garuda as they disrupt the market with their innovative readily available, off-the-shelf technology. The Company’s vision for the future of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation without the need for stem cell donors make this a compelling investment opportunity,” said Carl Gordon, Ph.D., C.F.A., Managing Partner at OrbiMed.
About Garuda Therapeutics
Garuda Therapeutics seeks to eliminate the need for stem cell donors for blood stem cell transplants. Garuda’s proprietary off-the-shelf hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) therapies enable self-renewing, HLA compatible and transgene-free HSCs, available immediately for patients. An immediately available, off-the-shelf option for patients could provide much needed strategies in a multitude of blood disorders across oncology, autoimmune indications, rare heme disorders and inborn errors of metabolism by effectively resetting bone marrow function. https://garudatx.com/
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