Foundery, a new biotech venture firm, sets out to speed early immune drug research

2023-08-22

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Dive Brief:

Foundery, a biotechnology venture firm focused on bridging immunology research at academic institutions into industry, announced Tuesday its first fund, with nearly $30 million dedicated to promising drug programs.

Headquartered next to the University of California, San Francisco, Foundery has a research collaboration with the school and the University of Arizona to turn ”scientific breakthroughs into impactful therapies” through research grants and drug development support, the firm said.

The company has nine preclinical drug leads in its research pipeline, and was founded in 2021 by former executives and scientists at Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, a cancer drug developer Ikena Oncology reached a deal to acquire earlier this month.

Dive Insight:

Foundery bills itself as a “venture studio.” Unlike more traditional venture firms that form and fund biotech companies, its focus is earlier, helping academic researchers overcome the roadblocks they can often face advancing scientific discoveries. This “valley of death,” as it’s called, can stymie the progress of medical research before a drugmaker or venture investor will buy in.

“Because time and financial commitments to conduct industry-standard translational research are typically not feasible for university researchers, Foundery helps bridge the gap by using its in-house immunologists and drug developers to validate targets and generate drug development candidates,” said Michel Streuli, Foundery’s CEO and co-founder, in an April press release announcing the University of Arizona collaboration.

Foundery helps scientists develop early-stage immunotherapy candidates by identifying targets and doing proof-of-concept testing. The firm can then license out the drug programs or help researchers advance them to the point that they can become the foundation of a biotech startup.

Its initial pipeline includes programs in therapeutic areas such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and inflammation. Two of them are focused on “historically challenging therapeutic targets,” but Foundery hasn’t revealed what they are.

While Foundery’s fund is just a fraction of the size of those raised by other new biotech venture firms that launched this year — Cure Ventures debuted with $300 million, and oncology-focused Yosemite raised $200 million — it will provide research grants.

“Together, we are setting a new standard for mutually beneficial and efficient collaborations,” Max Krummel, a co-founder of Foundery, said in a statement. Krummel, who is also a professor of pathology at UCSF and co-founder of its ImmunoX Initiative, was involved in early research on CTLA-4, the target of the first approved “checkpoint” cancer immunotherapy.

Venture veterans such as Samsara BioCapital’s Srini Akkaraju and Redpoint Ventures’ Jeff Brody have joined Foundery’s roster of limited partners. Foundery’s investment model, Brody said, can “help academics and their institutions de-risk their discoveries and hold on to a larger percentage of the upside.”