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Amgen-backed Seismic shakes up $121M financing for preclinical immunology programs

2023-12-04

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Seismic's $121 million series B follows a $101 million series A round in 2022.

Seismic Therapeutic has secured a series B of significant magnitude, with $121 million pitched in by new investor Amgen Ventures in a round aimed at pushing two immunology programs into the clinic.

Seismic Therapeuticd by new investor Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Amgen Ventures and Codon CAmgen Venturesdria Venture Investments, Gaingels and GC&H. Existing investors Timothy A. Springer, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Polaris Partners, Boxer Capital, GV, Samsara BioCapital, and unnamed management members and founders also joined in.

The funding round follows a $101 million series A round in 2022, bringing Seismic’s totaAmgen Venturesed toCodon Capital.Gaingels Lightspeed Venture Partners Polaris Partners Boxer Capital Samsara BioCapital

“When we launched Seismic at the end of 2021, we had a bold idea of applyiSeismicine learning to biologics drug discovery for immunology,” Jo Viney, Ph.D., CEO of Seismic, told Fierce Biotech via email. “At the time, we were a pioneer because most drug developers were applying machine learning to small molecules and target discovery. Our approach is to use machine learning to optimize the therapeutic properties of novel biologics for autoimmune diseases.”

Seismic was launchSeismiche founders of Pandion Therapeutics—including Viney—after its $1.9 billion acquisition by Merck in 2021. The company started exploring macSeismicarning in pan‑immunoglobulin (Ig) G protease sculpting (Sc) enzymes, which gave way to Seismic’s S-1117 program, and dual-cell bidirectional antibodies, which resulted in the company’s S-4321 program, according to Viney.autoimmune diseases

The new money will be funneled toward adPandion Therapeuticsograms—both currently in preclinical development—througMerck-enabling studies and phase 1 trials. Though Seismic hasn’t revealed specific indicatiproteaseeither program, CEO Viney shared insight on the therapeutic potential for each.

Seismic’s Ig sculpting enzymes are designed to reduce or eliminate pathogenic antibodies that cause a range of autoimmune diseases such as myasthenia gravis, and chrSeismicflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, Viney said.

Meanwhile, S-4321 is made to simultaneously engage inhibitory receptors on T cells and antigen presenting cellsautoimmune diseasesiple cellmyasthenia gravistoimmuchronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy

“We are binS-4321o PD-1 as well as another inhibitory receptor—Fc gamma RIIb,” Viney explained. “So, we are addressing two different pathways with two celautoimmune diseasegle molecule.”

The therapeutic potPD-1al lies in major autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, the CEO said. In theory, tackling two pathways should offer more opportunity than just going after one, like Eli Lilly is with its mid-stage PD-1 agonist peresolimab for rheumatoid arthritis.

The series B will also be used to build autoimmune diseasesine and exrheumatoid arthritisrninginflammatory bowel diseasey adding more methods to enhance biologics drug discovery.Eli Lilly PD-1 agonist PD-1 peresolimab rheumatoid arthritis

The Massachusetts-based biotech has evolved Seismicts launch a few years ago, expanding from a 14-person staff to 47 employees, and still growing, according to Viney, who said the company is actively recruiting.

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