Goldfinch Bio raises $100m to develop therapies for kidney diseases

Goldfinch Bio has raised $100m in a Series B funding round for the discovery and development of precision drugs for the treatment of kidney diseases.

The Series B round of Goldfinch Bio was led by Eventide Asset Management. It also included new investors – Wellington Management Company, Ally Bridge Group, Casdin Capital, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, and Irving Investors.

Existing investors Gilead Sciences, Schroeder Adveq, Yonjin Capital, and other undisclosed institutional investors also took part in the funding round of the Massachusetts-based clinical stage biotechnology company.

Eventide Asset Management’s Finny Kuruvilla said: “We believe that Goldfinch has made impressive progress since its founding in 2016, including advancing GFB-887 into clinical development with a strong biomarker hypothesis for patient selection, entering into a collaboration with Gilead Sciences to further elucidate the genetic basis of kidney diseases and advancing the field’s collective understanding of kidney biology.”

Currently, Goldfinch is advancing two programmes through clinical development, which are GFB-887, a selective inhibitor of transient receptor potential canonical channel 5 (TRPC5), and GFB-024, a peripherally-restricted cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) inverse agonist.

The biotechnology company said that it is looking to launch a phase 2 clinical trial in mid-2020 of GFB-887 in patients having focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and diabetic nephropathy (DN). According to the company, the two diseases are usually driven by overactivation of the TRPC5-Rac1 pathway.

Goldfinch Bio aims to submit an investigational new drug (IND) application for GFB-024 for the treatment of CB1-mediated diabetic nephropathy in 2021.

The US biotechnology company said that the proceeds from the Series B funding round will allow it to advance GFB-887 and GFB-024 via three potential clinical proof-of-concept readouts in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and diabetic nephropathy and in CB1-mediated diabetic nephropathy, respectively.

The funding will also help in the continued development of its discovery platform and preclinical pipeline, said Goldfinch Bio.

Goldfinch Bio president and CEO Anthony Johnson said: “We are grateful for the support of new and existing investors, which reflects both the urgent need to revolutionize the treatment of kidney diseases and the quality of the Goldfinch product engine and development pipeline.

“The proceeds from this financing will allow us to advance both GFB-887 and GFB-024 through clinical proof-of-concept in multiple underserved patient populations, with the additional goal of validating our precision medicine approach to treating kidney diseases.”