It is not clear what the new company’s focus is just yet.
Gossamer Bio is launching with $100 million in seed financing and two biotech heavy hitters as leadership.
The company is being formed by Faheem Hasnain and Sheila Gujrathi, former chief executive officer and chief medical officer, respectively, of Receptos. Receptos was acquired by Celgene in 2015 for $7.2 billion. Receptos focused on immune and metabolic diseases. Its Ozanimod is under development for multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, although the drug’s development for colitis and Crohn’s disease may have stalled.
The $100 million seed round was provided by Omega Funds and a Series A Preferred Stock round co-led by ARCH Venture Partners and Omega Funds.
It’s not clear what the company’s focus is. It stated, “Gossamer Bio’s strategy will be to leverage an asset-rich in-licensing environment, with a focus on areas of high unmet need, utilizing a team with a strong track record of execution in immunology, inflammation, fibrosis and oncology.”
The funds raised will be used to form the company and move toward clinical trials with several early and late-stage drug candidates, as well as to “augment the company’s pipeline,” the company states.
“We founded Gossamer Bio with a vision to pursue the development of meaningful products that meet patients’ needs,” said Hasnain, who will be the company’s chairman of the board and chief executive officer, in a statement. “After Receptos was acquired by Celgene in July 2015, we have been thoroughly assessing and acquiring therapies that have the potential to create substantial value. Combining this with our proven track record, we believe that we will be in a position to profoundly impact the lives of patients.”
The company’s lead program is apparently Phase IIb/III-ready, but aside from saying that it’s an “oral, once daily therapy targeting specific patients across different indications with the potential for a pipeline within a product,” there are no specifics about disease target. It is inferred that the lead product came out of Omega Funds.
“We are very excited to partner with Faheem, Sheila, and their team in this new venture,” said Richard Lim, managing director of Omega Funds, in a statement. “Gossamer Bio is precisely the type of company targeting severe unmet needs in which we aim to invest and we look forward to working with this exceptional team to deliver long-term value. We are proud and pleased to have provided Gossamer Bio’s seed capital, as well as the company’s lead clinical stage program.”
Lim and Otello Stempacchia, also of Omega Funds, will join Hasnain and Gujrathi on the board of directors. Also joining the board will be Kristina Burow and Robert Nelsen of ARCH Venture Partners, and Tom Daniel, former chairman and president of Celgene Global Research and Early Development. Gujrathi will act as president and chief operating officer.
“We are thrilled to launch and build a new company with the core mission of developing innovative therapies and being of service to patients who are suffering,” Gujrathi said in a statement. “We are honored to be working with the world-class team that we are assembling at Gossamer Bio, and we are driven to deliver on our commitments to our patients, our shareholders and each other.”
