The private placement from existing and new investors extends the company’s cash runway into the second half of 2026 and will help take two candidates for inflammatory bowel disease into the clinic in 2024.
Pictured: Stack of coins with trading graph/iStock, KanawatTH
Following a recent rebranding and executive team overhaul, Spyre Therapeutics announced Thursday it scored $180 million in private financing from existing and new investors.
Thursday’s deal has Spyre selling six million shares of common stock for $15 a share and 150,000 shares of its Series B preferred stock at $600 a pop. The biotech will use the proceeds, in addition to the $205 million in cash it had on hand as of September 30, 2023, to fund its programs. The cash runway is expected to last into the second half of 2026.
Spyre, previously branded as Aeglea BioTherapeutics, has had a tough run. Initially focused on rare diseases, the FDA turned down Aeglea’s candidate for arginase 1 deficiency in June 2022, asking for more efficacy data to support its BLA. What followed was a 25% cut to its workforce and the departure of its CEO in August 2022. The headcount was whittled down two more times as part of sweeping reorganization efforts to a staff of 10.
In June 2023, Aeglea made a big jump and acquired Spyre Therapeutics in a stock-trade deal, adding its pipeline of antibody therapeutics for inflammatory bowel disease to the portfolio. In November 2023, the combined company rebranded to take the Spyre name, bringing in a new CEO, expanding the leadership team and adding to its board of directors.
Spyre’s lead candidates, SPY001 and SPY002 are best-in-class hopefuls already in IND-enabling studies. The monoclonal antibody therapeutics target a4b7 and TL1A, respectively, and are anticipated to be in the clinic next year.
SPY001 is the same class of drug as Takeda’s Entyvio, which is approved to treat Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Last year, global sales came in at over $6.4 billion.
This week has been a busy one for biopharma capital raises. Amgen-backed Seismic Therapeutics nabbed $121 million for its two lead programs—a pan-immunoglobulin G protease sculpting enzyme candidate and a PD-1 agonist. Odyssey Therapeutics took in $101 million in Series C financing to advance its portfolio of immunology and oncology therapeutics. A fresh infusion of $90 million will help radiopharmaceutical company ArtBio take its prostate cancer program into the clinic.
Kate Goodwin is a freelance life science writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. She can be reached at kate.goodwin@biospace.com and on LinkedIn.
