Elixir Pharmaceuticals, a drug developer targeting aging-related afflictions ranging from cancer to obesity, announced a $40.5 million Series B round this week. The three-year-old company had raised $12.5 million previously. If Elixir can deliver on its grand ambitions, its team and investors will surely be fat cats. For the moment, its labs are filled with fat rats.
The obese mice, along with other “wonderful models that spontaneously develop cancer,” are at the core of Elixir’s novel approach to combating the innumerable diseases that emerge with aging, says CEO Ed Cannon. The company mutates test subjects and tracks the relationship between genes and the many afflictions, rather than focusing on specific diseases like many traditional companies do. The insights can then be applied to a wide array of diseases including diabetes, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease.
Elixir’s hard-science approach drew investors MPM Capital, which led the round, Oxford Bioscience Partners, and Arch Venture Partners. (Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, has also funded the company through his venture fund Tako Ventures.) Elixir already has 4 patents under its belt and 50 applications are in the pipeline. Most are about discoveries connecting genes to aging functions. “Usually, there is a much higher correlation between good science and investment opportunities,” says Bob Nelson, a managing director at Arch Venture. “It is the unique biology insights that pharmaceutical companies do not get and cannot create.”
It would be hard to find anyone more qualified for biological insights to aging that the company’s founders, MIT biology professor Leonard Guarente and University of California San Francisco biochemistry professor Cynthia Kenyon. Mr. Guarente, whose book Ageless Quest addresses aging, identified a gene in yeast that seems to regulate aging in a wide variety of systems. The results fell in line with other research that implies aging and its related diseases can be genetically controlled. For example, reducing the caloric intake for animals increases its lifespan, because “in times of scarcity, it is advantageous to stick through the bust cycle for the boom cycle,” he says. There is a price to pay for the gene’s activity: less reproduction. Not to mention, no evolutionary advantage exists for sticking around after contributing to the gene pool. “We age because there is no reason for us not to age,” he says.
But more than the aging riddle, Mr. Nelson wants to know if there is anyway “we can impact the major diseases that kill us.” Indeed, Elixir’s own days could be numbered if it does not find a way to bring products to market or be acquired by another company. Already a long and grueling task for biotechnology companies, Elixir’s broad approach could make developing a product that much more difficult. “These are new pathways so we do not exactly know where they will lead,” says Mr. Nelson. “The human body is a very complicated thing.”
Mr. Cannon says a “product in the market is still a long way off.” That means about 8 to 10 years. But the company will have a better indication of its viability in as little in six months, when lab tests about its effectiveness in targeting genes are under way. And approaching aging as a platform instead of targeting particular diseases gives the company “multiple shots on goal” – or the ability to pick and choose the most promising findings. “If we are right – and I think we are – all of the big pharma companies will want to play in this new area,” he says. “And if we do our job right, we will be the guys they come to so they can get into the playground.”
Other notable deals from VentureOneCompany Name: CoTherixHeadquarters: Belmont, CaliforniaIndustry Segment: BiopharmaceuticalsRound Date: October 9, 2003Round Number: 4Business Status: Product in clinical trialsAmount Raised: $55 millionInvestors: Alta Partners, BioAsia Investments, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, MPM Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, Spray Venture Partners, Thomas Weisel Capital PartnersDescription: Developer of pharmaceuticals for pulmonary disease
Company Name: CorgentechHeadquarters: South San Francisco, CaliforniaIndustry Segment: BiopharmaceuticalsRound Date: September 30, 2003Round Number: 4Business Status: Product in clinical trialsAmount Raised: $45 millionInvestors: Bristol-Myers SquibbDescription: Developer of a new class of therapeutics called transcription factor decoys or TF decoys, which treat human disease by regulating gene expression
Company Name: Sylantro SystemsHeadquarters: Campbell, CaliforniaIndustry Segment: CommunicationsRound Date: September 30, 2003Round Number: 4Business Status: Shipping productAmount Raised: $15 millionInvestors: Accel Partners, Azure Capital Partners, BA Venture Partners, BCE Capital, CIT Group, Hook Partners, J.P. Morgan Partners, Mayfield, Pyramid Technology Ventures, Vanguard VenturesDescription: Developer of an applications-enabled softswitch for delivery of managed telephony
Company Name: OpVistaHeadquarters: Irvine, CaliforniaIndustry Segment: CommunicationsRound Date: September 30, 2003Round Number: 3Business Status: Product developmentAmount Raised: $10 millionInvestors: Incubic, Sevin Rosen Funds, U.S. Trust, WK Technology FundDescription: Designer, developer, and manufacturer of dense wavelength division multiplexing-based products for deployment in long-haul and metro core networks
Company Name: ProofpointHeadquarters: Cupertino, CaliforniaIndustry Segment: SoftwareRound Date: September 30, 2003Round Number: 2Business Status: Shipping productAmount Raised: $9 millionInvestors: Benchmark Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Stanford UniversityDescription: Developer of software solutions that protect, control, and manage messaging for large enterprises
Company Name: High Tower SoftwareHeadquarters: Aliso Viejo, CaliforniaIndustry Segment: SoftwareRound Date: September 30, 2003Round Number: 3Business Status: Shipping productAmount Raised: $6 millionInvestors: Falcon Fund, Hallador Venture Partners, Inroads Capital Partners, Liberty PartnersDescription: Provider of software applications for turning business data into usable information, in real time