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A fledgling transpacific biotech grabs a launch round to dive into oncology and autoimmune research

2021-11-23

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Precision-med biotech Allorion Therapeutics is expanding — and now has tens of millions of dollars more to work with. The Natick, MA-based company announced in a statement this morning that it closed a Series A round, bringing in $40 million. Shanghai VC Qiming Venture Partners led the round, which also includes a number of both new and old investors — Octagon Capital, IDG Capital and TF Capital, to name a few. According to Allorion, which has operations in both Massachusetts and Guangzhou, China, the $40 million will go toward preclinical projects, IND-enabling studies and IND applications of two drug candidates in China and the US. It also includes investing in its own internal drug discovery platform. The biotech focuses on discovering small molecules specifically against cancer and autoimmune diseases — but to what extent remains unclear. Allorion has not yet named any targets or programs it is prioritizing. However, the company says there is an internal focus on “chemical libraries,” emphasizing allosteric and covalent modulators, with a hint of AI through “optimizing the libraries through the aid of AI.” Allorion started up close to 18 months ago in June 2020, when co-founders Peter Ding and Fang Li got together. Ding, currently Allorion’s CEO, came over from another company where he was a co-founder — Curegenix, where he was also head of R&D. Li joined up as CSO after leaving his position as the head of translational and computational biology at Cambridge precision oncology player Tango Therapeutics. And last December, Allorion got their internal labs up and running at their sites in Massachusetts and Guangzhou, according to a company statement. “We have confidence in the team’s strong R&D capabilities. We hope to support Allorion to grow into a globally-recognized company and improve patients’ life quality,” Ding said in a prepared statement.

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