AN Venture Partners (ANV), a global biotech venture capital fund, today announced an investment in City Therapeutics, a newly created biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, MA, USA.
City Therapeutics focuses on harnessing next-generation engineering of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to improve and expand the reach of RNAi-based medicines. The company is building a pipeline of innovative RNAi therapeutics to make a significant impact for patients across multiple therapeutic areas, with the first program expected to enter clinical development at or around year-end 2025.
Led by executive chair John Maraganore, Ph.D., the founding CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the company’s co-founders and management team include many of the creators of the first generation of RNAi therapeutics.
Some of the scientific co-founders and advisors of City Therapeutics include Yukihide Tomari, Ph.D., professor in the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at The University of Tokyo; and Kotaro Nakanishi, Ph.D. (from Tokyo Institute of Technology), Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry at Ohio State University.
In tandem with its launch, City Therapeutics has completed a $135 million Series A financing led by ARCH Venture Partners, with participation from other leading life sciences investors including ANV, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Invus, Slate Path Capital, Rock Springs Capital and Regeneron Ventures. For more information, please visit www.citytx.com.
“We are delighted to be part of the eminent group of investors that are backing City Therapeutics and its promising RNAi technology,” said Ken Horne, ANV’s Managing Partner. “We see the potential for RNAi to emerge as the next major category of high-impact medicines, rivaling if not exceeding the success of monoclonal antibodies.”
About AN Venture Partners
AN Venture Partners is a Tokyo and San Francisco-based venture capital firm investing primarily in biotech. The fund has been established by a group of experienced venture capitalists from Japan and the United States, who have a wealth of experience in founding and growing start-ups, in addition to having agreed an alliance with ARCH Venture Partners. ANV’s investment strategy focuses on company creation and early-stage investments, with a particular but not exclusive focus on science from Japan. ANV also invests in global start-ups and will invest all the way through to sale, merger or IPO. For more information, please visit www.an.vc.
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