A biotechnology startup developing drugs designed to eliminate troublesome proteins found outside of cells has raised $130 million to start its first clinical trial.

一家开发生物技术药物的初创公司，这些药物旨在消除细胞外的顽固蛋白质，目前已经筹集了1.3亿美元，以启动其首次临床试验。

The startup, GlycoEra, will use the Series B funds to generate initial clinical data for its lead program, an immune disease treatment dubbed GE8820. It intends to bring a second immune drug into human testing as well.

这家名为 GlycoEra 的初创公司将利用 B 轮资金为其主导项目生成初步临床数据，该项目是一种名为 GE8820 的免疫疾病治疗药物。该公司还计划将第二种免疫药物投入人体试验。

GlycoEra views GE8820 as having the type of broad potential that could make it a “pipeline in a product,” said company president and CEO Ganesh Kaundinya. The drug targets IgG4, a circulating antibody that can be protective against allergies, but malfunctions and attacks the body’s own tissues in

GlycoEra 公司总裁兼首席执行官 Ganesh Kaundinya 表示，公司认为 GE8820 具有广泛的潜力，可能使其成为一种“产品中的管线”。该药物针对 IgG4，一种循环抗体，可以对抗过敏起到保护作用，但其功能异常时会攻击人体自身的组织。

many autoimmune conditions

许多自身免疫条件

, among them the skin disorder pemphigus and the kidney condition primary membranous nephropathy.

其中包括皮肤病天疱疮和肾脏疾病原发性膜性肾病。

GE8820 is a dual-acting drug that coaxes the body into destroying this defective IgG4. One part of the molecule binds to the antibody and drags it to the liver. The other part then latches onto a receptor that absorbs IgG4 into cells, where it’s trashed by an internal protein-disposal system.

GE8820是一种双效药物，可诱导身体摧毁这种有缺陷的IgG4。分子的一部分与抗体结合并将其拖至肝脏，另一部分则附着在受体上，将IgG4吸收进细胞内，在那里它会被内部的蛋白质处理系统分解清除。

According to GlycoEra, preclinical testing has shown the approach can remove malfunctioning IgG4 antibodies with the type of precision not seen with other approaches. By doing so, GE8820 may avoid the broadly immunosuppressive effects of other autoimmune medicines. It may also ease the “burden on the healthcare system,” Kaundinya said..

根据GlycoEra的说法，临床前测试表明，这种方法可以以前所未有的精确度去除功能异常的IgG4抗体。通过这种方式，GE8820可能避免其他自身免疫药物的广泛免疫抑制效果。考丁尼亞还表示，它还可能减轻“医疗系统的负担”。

Patients typically “get treated, they get better, they are fine, and then they come back to that relapse,” Kaundinya said. “Our approach not only enables the patients to live better lives, it also overall contributes to better healthcare economics across the board.”

患者通常“接受治疗，他们好转了，他们很好，然后他们又回到复发状态，”考丁尼亚说。“我们的方法不仅能让患者过上更好的生活，还总体上有助于改善整个医疗经济。”

Ganesh Kaundinya is the president and CEO of GlycoEra.

甘尼什·孔丁尼亚是 GlycoEra 的总裁兼首席执行官。

Permission granted by GlycoEra

GlycoEra授权许可

GlycoEra has publicly disclosed three other programs behind GE8820, but hasn’t specified which diseases they’re targeting. The company could submit a request to begin trials for its second drug in 2026,

GlycoEra 已公开披露了 GE8820 之后的另外三个项目，但并未具体说明这些项目针对哪些疾病。该公司可能在 2026 年提交开始其第二种药物试验的申请。

according to its website

根据其网站

.

。

Novo Holdings led GlycoEra’s Series B round, which involved the venture arms of Roche and Bristol Myers Squibb, Sofinnova Partners and several other firms.

Novo Holdings 领投了 GlycoEra 的 B 轮融资，此轮融资涉及罗氏和百时美施贵宝的风险投资部门、Sofinnova Partners 以及多家其他公司。

“What really stood out with GlycoEra is that you had a use case here where, in autoimmune disease, there's limited competition, a high amount of medical need and the biological rationale is really strong,” said Novo Holdings partner Max Klement. “As we see the autoimmune disease space evolve, precision medicine makers such as .

“GlycoEra真正突出的地方在于，它在自身免疫性疾病领域有一个用例，该领域竞争有限、医疗需求高，且生物学依据非常充分，”Novo Holdings合伙人Max Klement表示。“随着我们看到自身免疫性疾病领域的演变，精准医疗制造商如 。

GlycoEra

糖基时代

are going to come to the forefront.”

“将会走到最前沿。”

GlycoEra is named after glycosylation, the process by which sugar chains are attached to proteins. The company is headquartered in Wädenswil, Switzerland and has a U.S. footprint in Newton, Massachusetts. It was spun out of Swiss biotech

GlycoEra 的名字来源于糖基化，即糖链附着在蛋白质上的过程。该公司总部位于瑞士瓦登斯维尔，并在美国马萨诸塞州牛顿设有分支机构。它从瑞士生物技术公司分拆出来。

LimmaTech

利马科技

Biologics

生物制品

in

在

January 2021

2021年1月

, and raised

，以及提升

approximately $49 million

大约 4900 万美元

in Series A funding that November.

在那年十一月的A轮融资中。

The company’s latest round is further evidence of continued interest in so-called protein degraders, which offer a way of getting to proteins traditional drugmaking methods can’t reach. Research into protein degradation has taken off since the

公司最新一轮融资进一步证明了人们对于所谓蛋白质降解剂的持续兴趣，这些降解剂提供了一种传统药物制造方法无法达到的蛋白质途径。自从蛋白质降解研究开始兴起以来，

turn of the century

世纪之交

, yielding an array of companies using

，生成了一系列使用该技术的公司

different methods

不同的方法

to

至

destroy harmful proteins

破坏有害蛋白质

.

。

Many of these companies are focused on protein targets inside of cells. GlycoEra is among those zeroing in on so-called extracellular proteins outside of cells or on their membranes. Fellow startups

许多公司专注于细胞内的蛋白质靶点。GlycoEra 是那些将目光投向细胞外或细胞膜上的所谓细胞外蛋白质的公司之一。其他初创公司也同样如此。

EpiBiologics

依比洛吉克斯

and

和

Lycia Therapeutics

莱西亚治疗公司

are as well.

也是一样的。