Gene-therapy company LogicBio Therapeutics, which develops cures for early-onset life-threatening diseases, has emerged from stealth to announce that it has raised $50 million in a financing round led by Arix Biosciences and with the particvipation of Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Pontifax, and SBI Japan-Israel Innovation Fund.
LogicBio also announced that it has relocated it headquarters from California to Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company has R&D offices in Ness Ziona. The funds and move will enable the startup to continue development of its GeneRide technology, a first-in-class, proprietary genome-editing platform, and to accelerate its lead programs to the clinic.
"We’ve been able to demonstrate the breadth of our technology in proof-of-concept studies across multiple preclinical models," said LogicBio President and CEO Frederic Chereau. "Conducted in collaboration with top-tier academic labs, these studies show that the GeneRide technology can provide stable, therapeutic levels of life-saving proteins after a single injection. We are passionate about taking the next step to deliver on the promise of this breakthrough technology for patients with early-onset rare diseases. In particular, we are focused on treating infants, which is a challenge for many gene therapies. And we’re excited to have such strong support from our investors to help us advance toward our goal of human proof-of-concept trials."
Founded by pioneers in gene therapy from leading academic institutions including Stanford University, Tel Aviv University, and Children’s Medical Research Institute in Australia - LogicBio’s core platform includes synthetic gene-therapy vectors derived from naturally occurring human adeno-associated viruses and the GeneRide technology. LogicBio’s co-founders are Dr. Mark Kay, Dr. Adi Barzel, and Dr. Leszek Lisowski.
"We’re pleased with LogicBio’s progress since seeding the company in early 2016," said Erez Chimovits, senior managing director at OrbiMed Israel. "We believe that the well-differentiated platform technology addresses some significant shortcoming of episomal gene-therapy approaches. We welcome the new investors and look forward to advancing breakthrough therapies to the clinic."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 28, 2017
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