GRT-002

Versant Ventures’ biotech incubation team has launched another Swiss startup, this time focused on a pair of antibodies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Granite Bio broke cover on Thursday morning after raising a $30 million Series A from Versant and Novartis’ venture arm in 2021 and a $70 million Series B from Forbion and Sanofi’s corporate venture team in 2023. The company has kept a low profile until now, new CEO Patrick Loustau said in an interview. Most recently, he was the chief business officer at Amolyt Pharma and helped orchestrate the hypoparathyroidism biotech’s $1.05 billion exit to AstraZeneca last year. Granite Bio is doing work in one of the most sought-after areas of drug development : inflammatory and immunology diseases (I&I). Large pharmaceutical companies made more than 10 I&I acquisitions last year, according to an Endpoints News tally, and investor interest continued in the first quarter, with the category continuing to “chip away at oncology,” Oppenheimer bankers wrote in a note earlier this month. Several pharma companies have also inked licensing and collaboration deals with I&I startups. While many companies are focused on bispecific antibodies and other modalities for I&I, Granite aims to get close to the root cause of disease by hitting the cellular origin of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Both of Granite’s programs originated in the labs of University of Regensburg professor Matthias Mack. Versant’s Ridgeline team in Basel carried them forward. Versant has launched several new biotechs in the past year, including four obesity drug developers and a kidney disease company that’s working with Novartis . The VC firm was also a founding investor in Santa Ana Bio, another autoimmune biotech that emerged last year with $168 million across its Series A and B rounds. Granite is already testing its lead antibody, dubbed GRT-001, in healthy volunteers. The experimental medicine aims to tamp down on pro-inflammatory monocytes. A Phase 1b trial in ulcerative colitis is slated to begin later this year, according to Loustau. “The approach is to totally deplete the monocytes,” he said, “and by doing that you basically eradicate all the cytokines that are produced by the monocytes.” Monocytes, a type of white blood cell, are essential players in the immune system. “If you look at patients that are resistant to the standard of care, monocytes are a key player in all those patients,” said Rogier Rooswinkel, a Forbion general partner and Granite board member. The company is currently testing an IV version of GRT-001 but it is also working on an under-the-skin option that will likely be taken into Phase 2, Loustau said. Beyond UC, the company is considering the experimental medicine’s potential in Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, fibrotic diseases, MASH and other areas. They could eventually test once-monthly dosing regimens, too. Meanwhile, the startup’s researchers are also developing an interleukin-3-blocking antibody called GRT-002. Granite believes the candidate will treat itch and allergy. Human studies of the asset are set to begin next year to test out that hypothesis.

Venture capitalists have been scouring the globe in search of better immunology drugs. Biotech startup creator Versant Ventures is among them, having formed and funded several companies in recent years looking to change the way certain inflammatory diseases are treated.Versant isnt done with that effort. On Thursday, the firm revealed its latest foray into immunology research a startup called Granite Bio thats already secured $100 million in funding and has two drugs either in, or nearing, clinical testing.Granite is a product of Ridgeline Therapeutics, part of an initiative Versant hatched more than a decade ago to help turn scientific discoveries into new companies. Operating in stealth mode, the company raised a $30 million Series A led by Versant and Novartis venture arm in 2021 and a $70 million Series B from Forbion and Sanofis venture fund two years later.The startup is working on two antibody drugs for inflammatory conditions. One, dubbed GRT-001, is being developed for inflammatory bowel disease and is currently in Phase 1 testing in healthy volunteers, with a trial in ulcerative colitis patients expected later this year. Another, GRT-002, is seen as a new way to potentially treat itch and allergies and should start its first trial in 2026.GRT-001 homes in on white blood cells called pro-inflammatory monocytes, which are part of the immune systems response to infections and inflammation. According to Granite CEO Patrick Loustau, this approach targets the “cellular source“ of IBD and has the potential to “reset“ patients' immune systems, which could lead to better and longer-lasting results than existing therapies.Monocyte depleters could have a similar impact on the innate immune system as B-cell targeting drugs appear to have on the adaptive part of the bodys defenses, giving them the potential to treat a range of inflammatory conditions,Loustau wrote in an email to BioPharma Dive.Granites other drug, GRT-002, homes on IL-3, a different inflammatory cytokine than the ones targeted by drugs like Dupixent and Cosentyx. Granite, in a statement announcing its launch, noted how IL-3 is a key player in autoimmunity as well as a kind of immune response called type 2 inflammation.Versant has started up several immune disease-focused biotechsof late. In 2024 alone, the firm formed Santa Ana Therapeutics, a developer of targeted immune therapies, as well as Borealis Biosciences, which is focused on medicines for inflammatory kidney diseases.Immunology investments more than doubled last year, surging to about $3.1 billion among the private rounds involving the prominent venture firms tracked by BioPharma Dive. Theyre on a similar trajectory in 2025, with about $1 billion raised so far. '