Dimension Therapeutics, Inc.

2024年9月19日，全球知名的生物医药媒体Endpoints News，公布了其备受瞩目的“The Endpoints 11 list：2025年最令人兴奋的生物科技初创公司榜单”。这一榜单旨在发掘并表彰那些在生物医药领域展现出巨大潜力的初创企业。 2025年，生物技术领域涌现出众多极具潜力的年轻初创公司。这些公司不仅在科技创新方面展现出强大的实力，更在推动行业进步的过程中扮演着举足轻重的角色。其中，超级智能AI技术、体内CAR-T治疗实体瘤的突破，以及溶瘤病毒在癌细胞消灭方面的内在潜力，都成为了今年“Endpoints 11”榜单关注的焦点。 接下来，让我们一起探寻这11家公司的详细情况，看看它们是如何在生物医药领域大放异彩的。 Averna Therapeutics，这家由OrbiMed合伙人Roy Amariglio博士创立的公司，旨在解决当前基因药物技术的瓶颈问题，例如整段基因修复在大范围内的实现仍受限制。通过驯化并优化天然的“跳跃基因”——反转录转座子，该公司已系统开发出一种非病毒的整基因插入方法，使完整的治疗基因能够更安全地融入人类DNA。最近，该公司成功完成了由Novartis Venture Fund和Delos Capital领投的8200万美元A轮融资。 Candid Therapeutics，这家成立于2024年的临床阶段生物技术公司，以加州圣地亚哥为总部，致力于通过创新的T细胞衔接器（TCE）技术，为自身免疫性和炎症性疾病带来革命性的治疗选择。公司目前正积极推进两种先导B细胞耗竭TCE抗体候选药物的开发，旨在通过针对不同B细胞蛋白靶点及深度B细胞耗竭的评估，全面探索TCE在多种自身免疫性疾病中的治疗潜力。其核心药物cizutamig，一款针对BCMA的潜在同类首创且最优的TCE药物，已进入多种自身免疫疾病的临床评估阶段。同时，公司还在研发下一代靶向CD19和CD20的药物，如CND261和CND319，并通过其强大的发现平台，不断拓展TCE在各类自身免疫和炎症性疾病中的应用范围。 Chai Discovery，这家于2024年成立的创新企业，专注于利用前沿人工智能技术来预测并重新编程生物化学分子间的相互作用。其团队成员均来自OpenAI、Meta FAIR、Stripe和Google X等在人工智能领域具有深厚积淀的公司，使得Chai Discovery在药物设计领域具有独特的优势。 在2024年，Chai Discovery获得了由Thrive Capital、OpenAI和Dimension领投的3000万美元种子轮融资，为公司的研发活动注入了强大的动力。随后，公司发布了用于分子结构预测的开源基础模型——Chai-1，展现了其在药物设计领域的初步成果。今年6月，该团队更是公布了利用Chai-2进行AI驱动药物发现的重大进展——成功从头设计抗体，命中率高达近20%。 Dispatch Bio成立于2022年，致力于解决实体瘤治疗的两大核心难题：肿瘤特异性靶点缺失与免疫抑制微环境。公司通过其首创的FLARE免疫治疗平台，有望为实体瘤患者提供通用型治疗方案。其创始团队包括CAR-T领域的知名教授Carl June以及Memorial Sloan Kettering癌症中心免疫肿瘤学主任Andy Minn博士等业界精英。 今年7月，Dispatch Bio宣布完成了2.16亿美元的种子轮及A轮融资，由ARCH Venture Partners与Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy（PICI）联合领投，百时美施贵宝（BMS）、宾夕法尼亚大学、斯坦福大学等知名机构参投。 坐落于马萨诸塞州剑桥的Judo Bio，自2024年成立以来，便致力于开发用于肾脏的寡核苷酸药物。公司不仅在创立之初就获得了1亿美元的种子融资和A轮融资，更凭借其独特的STRIKE平台，开创了一种专有的配体-RNA结合药物创建方法。该方法旨在通过肾脏细胞的特定受体进行基因沉默，从而实现对肾脏疾病的修饰。 Lila Sciences，这家坐落于马萨诸塞州剑桥的初创企业，自2023年成立以来，便致力于构建全球首个科学超级智能平台，并进一步应用于生命科学、化学及材料科学领域的完全自主实验室。今年3月，Lila宣布获得2亿美元的首轮资金支持。 Orbis Medicines，由Novo Holdings的种子投资团队于2021年创立，致力于口服大环类药物的研发。大环化合物，这类具有环状结构的神奇分子，凭借其出色的多样性，能够针对众多蛋白质靶点发挥作用。 今年1月，Orbis宣布成功筹集9000万欧元A轮融资，由NEA领投。 维泰瑞隆（Sironax），这家成立于2017年的全球化生物科技公司，目前正处于临床研究阶段。公司专注于研发能够治疗衰老相关退行性疾病的突破性疗法，构建起一个多元化的项目研发管线。这些项目聚焦于衰老相关疾病的三大关键致病机理：失调的细胞死亡、失控的炎症反应，以及失衡的能量稳态。 StylusMedicine，这家于2022年成立的创新企业，专注于体内基因药物的研发，致力于为患者提供持久有效的治疗方法。今年5月，公司成功完成8500万美元的首轮融资，吸引了RA capital、礼来、强生等知名投资机构的目光。 Third Arc Bio，成立于2022年，致力于为实体瘤、炎症与免疫学疾病提供创新的转型疗法。通过多功能抗体，该公司能够精准激活或抑制T细胞，从而产生免疫突触。 最近，公司又获得了Vida Ventures领投的1.65亿美元融资，为进一步推进临床项目提供了有力支持。 Umoja，这家成立于2019年的公司，专注于体内细胞疗法的研究，旨在提升肿瘤和自身免疫领域CAR-T细胞疗法的普及率、疗效及可及性。经过数轮融资，包括2020年11月的5300万美元A轮融资、2021年6月的2.1亿美元B轮融资，以及今年1月的1亿美元C轮融资，Umoja已积累了雄厚的资金实力。 其核心技术通过体内“重编程”患者自身免疫系统，以更高效地识别和清除癌细胞，为癌症患者带来新的治疗希望。

Premji Invest led the series D round with support from a mix of new and existing investors.\n Enveda has closed its second $150 million financing round of the year. The series D round, which moves Enveda’s total funding beyond $500 million, positions the biotech to advance a crop of programs into the clinic behind its phase 1b eczema prospect.Colorado-based Enveda is built on the idea that molecules made by living organisms are an underused source of drug candidates. There is a long history of turning natural products into drugs, but the industry has largely moved away from the model. Enveda is betting that technology for organizing, analyzing and screening molecules can revitalize natural product drug discovery while shortening the path to the clinic.VCs have bought into the idea. Enveda raised a $130 million series C round late last year, securing cash for a phase 1 trial of eczema prospect ENV-294. Sanofi added to the round in February, bringing the total size of the series C up to $150 million.Enveda’s addition of a further $150 million to its coffers equips the biotech to move multiple programs into phase 1b and phase 2 trials. The biotech is already enrolling patients in a phase 1b trial of ENV-294, a small molecule with a novel, as-yet-undisclosed mechanism of action. Enveda is pitching ENV-294 as an asset that could pair the efficacy of JAK inhibitors with the safety of drugs that hit IL-4 and IL-13. The company is developing ENV-294 in eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, and asthma. ENV-6946 and ENV-308 are scheduled to join Enveda’s clinical roster this year. ENV-6946 is a gut-preferred inhibitor of the NLRP3/TL1A+ pathway that the company sees as a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease. ENV-308 is a first-in-class, oral small molecule for the treatment of obesity.Another two drug candidates are at the IND-enabling stage and a bunch of other programs are back at the discovery or optimization steps. As it works out where to place its R&D bets, Enveda has added a person credited with moving more than 150 drug candidates into clinical trials to its board. That person is Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., Pfizer’s former chief scientific officer.Premji Invest led the series D round with support from a mix of new and existing investors, namely Baillie Gifford, Kinnevik, Lingotto Investment Management, Peakline Partners, FPV, Socium Ventures, Dimension, Level Ventures, Henry Kravis, IA Ventures and Lux Capital.

A Colorado biotech has gone from a $50,000 “pre, pre-seed” check from its founding CEO to $517 million in funding and unicorn status in five years. Enveda hit the $1 billion valuation milestone — a relative rarity for private biotech startups compared to the tech industry — after reeling in another $150 million on Thursday. The Series D comes less than a year after the drug developer’s equally-sized Series C , which included an extension from Sanofi. The biotech, which has a total of 300 employees in Boulder and CEO Viswa Colluru’s home country of India, will use the money and existing funds to get at least a dozen clinical catalysts by the time the capital is expected to dry up “well into” 2028, Colluru told Endpoints News . “There was enough happening around the table that I think we could justify both additional dilution at a good price, but also show the precise chips that we would accelerate on the path to our long-term vision,” he said. The round came together in one month, according to the CEO. That’s in stark contrast to the fundraising struggles faced by many private biotechs in recent years. Premji Invest, which has offices in the US and India, led the Series D. Other backers include Baillie Gifford, Kinnevik, Peakline Partners, Dimension and Lux Capital. Meanwhile, Enveda added former Pfizer chief scientist Mikael Dolsten to its board. Enveda mines the chemistry of plants from around the world and uses machine learning tools to drive its R&D engine. “We’re able to take the world’s most successful chemical library and put it in a manner that is programmable and searchable back into the hands of human chemists,” Colluru said. “What you can do with the world’s most diverse library, you can do one of two things: You can discover completely new biology by doing phenotypic screening, or you can make better versions of existing drugs for known targets. We do primarily the former, with a small sprinkling of the latter to balance out the portfolio.” With that plant chemistry database, the company has been able to quickly build a sprawling pipeline of about 16 treatment candidates, many of which are oral drugs or topical medicines. Enveda is doing work in some of the splashiest therapeutic areas, including I&I, obesity and neurological conditions. It also has ambitions in chronic pain, tissue-scarring afflictions like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and MASH. The lead program, an oral candidate dubbed ENV-294, has been through Phase 1. In the “coming months,” it will enter Phase 2a studies for atopic dermatitis and asthma, Colluru said. Enveda is also preparing to soon move its once-daily oral hormone mimetic for obesity and an oral NLRP3/TL1A+ pathway inhibitor for inflammatory diseases into human trials, Colluru said. Enveda anticipates each of the three drugs could hit $5 billion or more in peak annual sales, according to a presentation shared with Endpoints. While many biopharmas are already racing to catch up to the obesity drug duopoly of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, Enveda thinks it can provide a “long-term solution” to the market with a daily pill that cuts fat while preserving most muscle mass, addresses comorbidities, and has fewer side effects than the current GLP-1s, Colluru said. Enveda won’t take all of its investigational medicines all the way to market. “Enveda’s mission has always been to be around when our kids are talking about the medicines that they hope existed,” Colluru said. “The way to fuel that generational ambition is to have a platform that actually works and fuels a pipeline that is ambitious and multifaceted by design so that we can create the optionality where we sell an asset or two without selling the company.” The company may consider offloading some of its drugs once it sees clinical data, Colluru said. An increasing number of biopharma companies, including Gilgamesh and Dren Bio, have also sold off single assets and retained the rest of their pipelines. Enveda is also considering whether its molecules could apply commercially to sectors like animal health and agrochemicals, Colluru told Endpoints in 2023 . “We’re not publicly talking about some of those efforts yet, but over the next year or so, you’ll see that the potential extends beyond” therapeutics, Colluru said this week.