Jade Biosciences has announced the closing of a $80 million funding round led by Fairmount and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, and with the participation of Deep Track Capital, Driehaus Capital Management, Franklin Templeton, RTW Investments, and Braidwell LP.
Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Jade Biosciences is a biotechnology company developing therapies with the goal of redefining the standard of care for indications in the areas of inflammation and immunology. The funds will support the company’s endeavors to develop targeted therapies for autoimmune diseases with high unmet needs.
Jade Biosciences is the fourth company created by Paragon Therapeutics, a biotechnology company with a business model that focuses on identifying and propelling best-in-class biologics into clinical research, covering a wide range of human diseases with high unmet needs.
Paragon focuses on pursuing unique therapeutic concepts and enabling rapid proof of concept validation; these therapies are then advanced through the creation of new companies as well as developing programs in house. The company also has an ongoing collaboration with FairJourney Biologics, a Portuguese biotechnology company dedicated to discovering and developing antibody therapeutics.
New biotechnology companies
Paragon Therapeutics was founded in 2021 by Fairmount Funds Management, an organization dedicated to investing in new biotechnology companies. In the three years since its foundation, Paragon has created four companies based on assets it generated. These include Apogee Therapeutics, Spyre Therapeutics, Oruka Therapeutics, and most recently Jade Biosciences. All of Jade’s predecessors target inflammatory conditions ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to asthma and psoriasis.
Along with the fundraising, the company has announced the appointment of Dr. Andrew King as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). King joins Jade Biosciences with over 15 years of leadership experience across organizations in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He previously served as CSO of Chinook Therapeutics, a clinical stage company developing precision medicines for kidney disease.
"We are confident that our preclinical stage assets, engineered by the exceptional team at Paragon, have the potential to change the treatment landscape for patients living with autoimmune diseases," said Andrew King, Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Jade Biosciences. "The company is backed by a strong slate of investors who helped fund the company and support its vision of delivering transformative therapies to patients in need."
