Healx, a Cambridge, UK-based AI-enabled, clinical-stage biotech company specializing in rare diseases, raised $47m in Series C funding.
The round was co-led by R42 Group and Atomico, with participation from new and existing investors including Balderton, Jonathan Milner, Global Brain, btov, Ayana Capital, o2h and VU Venture Partners. In conjunction with the financing, Stanford Medicine Adjunct Professor Ronjon Nag, Ph.D., founder of R42 Group and 2024 Silicon Valley Hall of Fame AI inductee, joined the board of Healx.
The company, which has raised approximately $110m to date, intends to use the proceeds to advance its pipeline of medicines in rare oncology, renal and neurodevelopmental disorders, including advancing its lead program HLX-1502 through a Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1).
Co-founded in Cambridge (UK) by its chairman and Viagra co-inventor David Brown, Ph.D., and Tim Guilliams, Ph.D., CEO, Healx is a generative AI enabled, clinical-stage, rare disease biotech company advancing the next generation of drug discovery in order to bring novel, effective treatments to rare disease patients around the world. By combining generative AI technology with deep drug discovery and development expertise, Healx can accelerate the pace, increase the scale and improve the chance of success of rare disease treatment development in order to deliver global patient impact.
The Healx drug discovery pipeline is powered by Healnet, an AI-driven discovery platform designed to identify clinically de-risked therapeutic opportunities for rare diseases. Healnet incorporates recent advances in generative AI to find connections between biological and chemical entities that could be turned into new treatments.
Healx also announced that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to proceed with its Phase 2 clinical trial of HLX-1502. This trial will focus on treating adults with NF1 and inoperable plexiform neurofibroma.
HLX-1502 is a tablet taken orally that works differently than other treatments and offers a new and differentiated investigational treatment option for patients with NF1
HLX-1502 has received Orphan Drug and Rare Pediatric Disease designations from the FDA for treating NF1. These FDA designations provide several benefits to encourage the development of treatments for rare diseases and further highlight HLX-1502’s potential to significantly improve the lives of NF1 patients.
FinSMEs
02/08/2024