BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Quellis Biosciences Inc., an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering best-in-class new molecules to treat serious rare diseases, today announced its emergence from stealth operations and that it has closed a $17 million Series A financing led by the Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund (PXV Fund).
Quellis was founded in November 2017 by biopharma incubator Viridian LLC with seed financing from Xontogeny LLC. The Series A financing was closed following the successful discovery and characterization of promising new molecules. Quellis is led by President and founding CEO Jonathan Violin, Ph.D. and Chief Scientific Officer Vahe Bedian, Ph.D., both Partners at Viridian. The Quellis Board of Directors comprises Chairman Chris Garabedian, CEO of Xontogeny and Manager, PXV Fund for Perceptive Advisors, joined by Directors Fred Callori, SVP of Xontogeny and Partner of PXV Fund and Dr. Violin.
“Quellis represents a shared vision for patient focused, data driven, and capital efficient discovery and development of important new medicines,” said Quellis founding CEO Jonathan Violin. “I’m thrilled to partner with Chris and the PXV team as we advance our novel and differentiated molecules in hopes of providing patients with meaningful new treatment options.”
The Company is currently optimizing several novel monoclonal antibodies targeting an undisclosed but validated mechanism of action to achieve a differentiated clinical profile for an undisclosed rare disease. As part of these efforts, the Company plans to incorporate Xencor Inc.’ s Xtend® Fc technology, for which the Company holds a target-exclusive license from Xencor. Xtend is a clinically proven antibody technology that provides for improved antibody half-life and thereby reduces the size and frequency of doses that patients require compared to a standard antibody drug candidate.
“We are excited to support the Quellis team in their goal to advance next-generation antibody therapies for rare diseases,” said Chris Garabedian. “We believe the de-risked biology and unmet need present an important opportunity for the lead Quellis program to create value for patients, providers, and payers.”
About Quellis
Founded in 2017 and based in Boston, Quellis Biosciences is dedicated to improving the lives of patients suffering from serious rare diseases by developing next-generation antibody therapies that deliver value by improving patient outcomes. Its lead program is optimizing multiple leads to identify antibodies with potential to deliver best-in-class performance for patients. For more information, see www.quellisbio.com
About Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund
Established in 2018, the Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund (PXV Fund) focuses purely on private investments in early stage life sciences companies. A primary source of investments for the PXV Fund are companies that are seeded, incubated, and/or actively managed by Xontogeny, a life sciences accelerator that provides experienced operational support to successfully and efficiently advance early stage companies. The PXV Fund is an affiliate of Perceptive Advisors, a New York City-based investment management firm founded in 1999 and focused on supporting the progress of the life sciences industry by identifying opportunities and directing financial resources to the most promising technologies in healthcare. For more information about Perceptive, visit www.perceptivelife.com.
About Viridian LLC
Viridian is a biopharma incubator, founded to strengthen the link between scientific discovery and product commercialization. Viridian leverages validated scientific findings and a deep appreciation of evolving unmet needs to identify opportunities with strong underlying science, de-risking translational data, and a high unmet need. Upon validation of these “program hypotheses”, Viridian establishes new companies, led initially by the Viridian team, to pursue the discovery and development of first-in-class or best-in-class new molecules. For more information, visit www.viridianbio.com.
