BackREDWOOD CITY, Calif. and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., — July 14, 2021 — Kriya Therapeutics, Inc., a fully integrated platform company pioneering novel technologies and therapeutics in gene therapy, today announced the closing of a $100 Million Series B financing to support its mission of transforming the design, development and manufacturing of gene therapies.
The financing was led by Patient Square Capital, with participation from new investors Woodline Partners LP, CAM Capital, Hongkou, Alumni Ventures and others. All existing institutional investors also participated in this round, including QVT, Dexcel Pharma, Foresite Capital, Bluebird Ventures, Transhuman Capital, Narya Capital, Amplo and JDRF T1D Fund. Proceeds from the financing will be used to further develop Kriya’s core technology platforms, expand its therapeutic pipeline and advance its current programs in metabolic disease, ophthalmology and oncology.
“In recent years we have seen the promise of gene therapy become a reality for the treatment of a number of devastating diseases. However, the field has been constrained by critical limitations in manufacturing technology, vector design capabilities and cost,” said Shankar Ramaswamy, M.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kriya Therapeutics. “Kriya was formed with the mission of revolutionizing how gene therapies are designed, developed and produced by fully integrating advanced manufacturing technologies, computational tools and development capabilities within a single company. With the support of our new and existing investors, we believe that Kriya is well positioned to deliver transformative improvements in cost, scale and efficiency that will help the gene therapy field achieve its full potential across a range of therapeutic areas.”
Concurrent with the financing, Jim Momtazee, Managing Partner of Patient Square Capital, will join Kriya’s Board of Directors. Prior to Patient Square, Mr. Momtazee spent over 21 years at KKR, where he helped establish the firm’s health care industry group in 2001 and subsequently was head of the Americas Heath Care Investment Team for over 10 years. Mr. Momtazee has spent years on the board of directors of Jazz Pharmaceuticals, HCA, PRA Health Sciences and BridgeBio Pharma, among other companies, and more recently joined the board of directors of Apollo Therapeutics.
“We believe that gene therapy will have transformative impact on medicine over time, and companies that are able to integrate platform capabilities delivering better treatments, lower cost and broader applications of the technology are going to drive that innovation,” said Mr. Momtazee. “With that vision, we are incredibly excited to partner with the management team at Kriya to bring multiple important medicines to patients.”
By combining advances in computer science and vector biology, Kriya is developing its SIRVE™ (System for Intelligent Rational Vector Engineering) platform for de novo vector design, sequence modification and data analysis. SIRVE is deployed to advance Kriya’s internally discovered gene therapy programs and improve first-generation products, with a goal of reducing immunogenicity and improving expression and packaging efficiency. Kriya is also developing STRIPE™ (System to Realize Improved Production Efficiency), a proprietary high-efficiency manufacturing platform integrating advances in cell line technology and upstream and downstream process to achieve exponential reductions in production costs at scale. STRIPE is being developed at Kriya’s 51,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and can support simultaneous manufacturing of multiple products from early research through commercialization. The company’s full cGMP manufacturing infrastructure is expected to be online this year.
About Patient Square Capital
Patient Square Capital is a dedicated health care investment firm that partners with best-in-class management teams whose products, services and technologies improve health. We utilize our deep industry expertise, our broad network of relationships and a true partnership approach to make investments in companies that will grow and thrive. We believe in the power these companies have to improve patient lives, strengthen communities and create a healthier world. Patient Square is purpose-built by a team of industry-leading executives, differentiated by the depth of our focus in health care, the breadth of our health care investing experience, and the network we can activate to drive differentiated outcomes. Most importantly, patients are squarely at the center of all that we do. For more information, visit www.patientsquarecapital.com.
About Kriya Therapeutics
Kriya Therapeutics is a fully integrated platform company pioneering novel technologies and therapeutics in gene therapy. The company aims to revolutionize how gene therapies are designed, developed and manufactured – improving speed to market and delivering significant reductions in the cost per dose. Kriya is built on two distinct technology platforms: its computationally enabled proprietary platform for rational vector design (SIRVE™) and its innovative high-efficiency manufacturing platform for scalable and low-cost production (STRIPE™). The company is advancing a deep and diversified pipeline of innovative gene therapies spanning rare and prevalent diseases in multiple therapeutic verticals, with current pipeline programs addressing metabolic, ophthalmic and oncologic diseases. With locations in Silicon Valley, Calif., and Research Triangle Park, N.C., Kriya was founded by pioneers in the biopharmaceutical industry and is backed by blue-chip life sciences and technology investors. For more information, please visit www.kriyatx.com and follow on LinkedIn.
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