April 6 Quick Takes: Retro lands with $180M for multidisease prevention
Plus: Molecular glue play Triana debuts and updates from AZ-Harbour, BioXcel, Citius, Novartis, Sanofi
Retro Biosciences Inc. emerged from stealth with $180 million in funds from undisclosed investors to develop lifespan-extending therapies that prevent multiple diseases, including an autophagy-targeting compound slated to enter the clinic next year, a plasma-based program expected to yield a candidate in two years, and a cellular reprogramming platform with a four-year timeline. The company, which is investing in single cell multi-omics, machine learning and lab automation tools, was co-founded by CEO Joe Betts-LaCroix, Matt Buckley and serial entrepreneur Sheng Ding, a professor at Tsinghua University and the Gladstone Institutes who has co-founded six companies including Tenaya Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:TNYA) and Fate Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:FATE), and is founding director of the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute in Beijing.
Advisers of the newco include former Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, who is CEO of Centrexion Therapeutics and operating partner at Artis Ventures; while he was a venture partner at Lux Capital, Kindler served on the board of automated animal study company Vium Inc., which was co-founded by Betts-LaCroix and acquired by Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX) in 2020...