Westlake today announced the launch of its third fund of $450 million to incubate and grow early stage next-generation biotechnology companies in the Los Angeles region and beyond. The new fund will be managed by founding managing director Beth Seidenberg, M.D., managing director Mira Chaurushiya, Ph.D., and David Allison, Ph.D., who was recently appointed managing director.
Westlake-backed Kate Therapeutics Inc., a next-generation gene therapy company, today emerged from stealth mode with a $51 million Series A financing co-led by founding investor Westlake Village BioPartners and Versant Ventures, with participation from Osage University Partners and UF Innovate | Ventures. In addition, the company has granted Astellas Pharma Inc. an exclusive, worldwide license to develop, manufacture and commercialize KT430 to treat X-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM), the details of which are described in a separate press release issued today.
Mira Chaurushiya, Managing Director at Westlake Village BioPartners, has been named one of Endpoints News’ LGBTQ+ biopharma leaders for 2023.
On May 19, Westlake Village BioPartners was named Business of the Year by the Greater Conjeo Valley Chamber of Commerce. We’re honored to be a part of the vibrancy and sustainability of the economic, cultural and philanthropic landscape of the Conejo Valley.
Kite, a Gilead Company (Nasdaq: GILD), and Westlake-backed Tmunity Therapeutics (Tmunity), today announced that the companies have signed an agreement in which Kite will acquire Tmunity, a clinical-stage, private biotech company focused on next-generation CAR T-therapies and technologies. The acquisition of Tmunity complements Kite’s existing in-house cell therapy research capabilities by adding additional pipeline assets, platform capabilities, and a strategic research and licensing agreement with the University of Pennsylvania (Penn)
Dantari, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing best-in-class targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancers and other diseases, announced its emergence from stealth mode with $47 million Series A financing. The Series A financing was led by Westlake Village BioPartners and included participation from Corner Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, and Caltech. The Company also announced the appointment of Richard A. Markus, M.D., Ph.D., as president and CEO, and its board of directors, chaired by Sean Harper, M.D., a co-founding managing director at Westlake.
Arsenal Biosciences, Inc., a privately held programmable cell therapy company engineering advanced CAR T therapies for solid tumors, announced a multi-year collaboration with Genentech. The companies will deploy ArsenalBio’s proprietary technology for high-throughput screening and engineering of T cells to identify critical success circuits in T cell-based therapies.
Neuron23 Inc., an early stage biotechnology company focused on developing precision medicines for genetically defined neurological and immunological diseases, and QIAGEN have announced a collaboration to develop a companion diagnostic for Neuron23’s LRRK2 inhibitor for Parkinson’s disease.
ACELYRIN, INC., a Westlake-funded late-stage clinical biopharma company, will use the financing to accelerate Phase 3 development of izokibep, a unique IL-17A inhibitor to treat inflammatory diseases including psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis.
Arsenal Biosciences, Inc., a privately held programmable cell therapy company engineering advanced CAR T therapies for solid tumors, announced the close of a $220 million Series B financing round. Proceeds from the financing will help the company expand its programmable cell therapy research activities and grow its pipeline of therapeutic candidates for solid tumor malignancies across a range of cancer indications.
3T Biosciences, an immunotherapy company changing the future of treatment for solid tumors and other immune-mediated diseases, announced its launch from stealth backed by $40 million Series A financing led by Westlake Village BioPartners with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners. As part of its launch, 3T announced it has exclusively in-licensed from Stanford University a precise antibody-based peptide-HLA therapeutic discovery platform and development-stage MAGE-A3 T-cell receptor (TCR)-T assets to rapidly expand 3T’s therapeutic portfolio.
Three scientists from Westlake-founded companies have made this year’s Endpoints Top 20 Scientists Under 40 list. Meet Sharif Tabebordbar, Nick Goeden, and Nick Flytzanis. They’re all Ph.D. scientists – aged 36, 35, and 35, respectively.
Westlake’s co-founding managing director, Beth Seidenberg, MD, was profiled in the cover story of this month’s edition of Pharmaceutical Executive. Seidenberg was recently named the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association’s Woman of the Year for her significant contributions to healthcare and the advancement of women in the industry.
Neuron23™ Inc., an early stage biotechnology company focused on developing precision medicines for genetically defined neurological and immunological diseases, today announced it has closed a $100 million Series C financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, bringing the company’s total financing raised to date to $213.5 million. Neuron23’s Series A and B investors – Westlake Village BioPartners, Kleiner Perkins, Redmile Group, Cowen Healthcare Investments, Acorn Bioventures, HBM Partners, Perceptive Advisors, and Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company) – also participated in the Series C financing round.
Kyverna Therapeutics, a cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for serious autoimmune diseases, today announced it has closed an oversubscribed $85 million Series B financing round led by Northpond Ventures. Additional investors included the company’s founding investors Westlake Village BioPartners, Vida Ventures, and Gilead Sciences, with new investors RTW Investments, LP, CAM Capital, Insight Partners, HealthCor, LYFE Capital, Intellia Therapeutics, Argentum Peak, Hudson Bay Capital, and jVen Capital.
The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) announced Westlake’s Beth Seidenberg as the 2022 Woman of the Year. She was recognized for her significant contributions to healthcare and the advancement of women in the industry.
Westlake today announced the appointment of Mira Chaurushiya, Ph.D., to the position of senior partner. Dr. Chaurushiya will be a full investing partner at Westlake. She joins the firm from 5AM Ventures, where she spent more than six years growing and building next-generation life sciences companies.
Westlake-backed ACELYRIN, INC., a biopharma company focused on providing patients life-changing new treatment options by identifying, acquiring, and accelerating development and commercialization of promising drug candidates, today announced the closing of its hugely successful Series B round of financing.
Expansion Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing transformative oral medicines for severe RNA-mediated diseases, today announced the close of an $80 million Series B financing. Cormorant Asset Management led the financing with participation from new investors Westlake Village BioPartners, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company) and Logos Capital as well as Series A investors RA Capital Management, 5AM, Kleiner Perkins, Sanofi Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the company’s small molecule RNA platform (SMIRNA™) to identify clinical candidates in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and various tauopathies.
On this episode of the weekly podcast The Puck: Venture Capital & Beyond, podcast host Jim Baer talks with Managing Partner at Westlake Village BioPartners Sean Harper, MD, about his experience working on the front lines of the medical industry and the ongoing evolution of the LA Biotech Hub. They discuss Harper’s background as a … Read More
Westlake’s co-founding managing director Beth Seidenberg was recently featured in BioSpace, discussing the advantages of a diverse team, a diverse boardroom and how it can fundamentally alter the trajectory of a company for the better. She also discusses the importance of committing to sustained mentorship at senior levels and the progress that can be made … Read More
Versant Ventures and Westlake Village BioPartners today announced the emergence from stealth mode of Capsida Biotherapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company using an adeno-associated virus (AAV) engineering and cargo development platform to develop tissue-targeted gene therapies for multiple types of diseases. In addition to a $50 million Series A commitment from the two firms, Capsida also announced a multi-year strategic collaboration and option agreement with AbbVie that provides $90 million in up front and equity investment capital in addition to potential future option, development and commercial milestone payments. The collaboration is aimed at developing best-in-class, targeted gene therapies for three programs in serious neurodegenerative diseases.
Westlake continues to be a catalyst for the Los Angeles Biotech Hub, bringing expertise and capital to the region as the biotech industry goes from strength to strength. In this profile, we look at the path co-founding managing directors Beth Seidenberg and Sean Harper took to get to this point, and where they are going … Read More
L.A. Biz recently sat down with Westlake’s managing director, Sean Harper, to do a deep dive into how the city’s life sciences industry is expanding and the role it could play driving the post-pandemic recovery.
Westlake’s co-founding managing director Beth Seidenberg was named by Barron’s as one of the “100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance” as part of its second annual list that honors women who are helping lead and shape the modern financial-services industry.
Westlake today announced the appointment of Peter Calveley to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Calveley will be responsible for managing the operational side of the firm, as well as enhancing strategic decision-making for Westlake’s portfolio of life sciences companies.
Westlake co-founding managing director, Sean Harper, recently spoke to Minnie Ingersoll, host of TenOneTen’s “LA Venture” podcast, about Westlake’s recently launched $500 million funds, the firm’s investment focus and the growth of the Los Angeles area biotech hub.
We are pleased to welcome Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D., as non-executive chairman of Tmunity’s Board of Directors. As a physician and scientist, Dr. Leiden has dedicated his career to improving the lives of people with serious diseases. We look forward to working with him as Tmunity advances its programs targeting solid tumors.
Programmable cell therapy company Arsenal Biosciences, which Westlake Village BioPartners seeded and significantly contributed to its Series A financing, today announced a $70 million multi-program discovery collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to advance next-generation T cell therapies for solid tumors.
Neuron23™ Inc., an early stage biotechnology company focused on developing precision medicines for genetically defined neurological and immunological diseases, today announced its launch backed by a combined $113.5 million Series A and B financing. The funding was comprised of $33.5 million Series A financing from Westlake Village BioPartners and Kleiner Perkins, and $80 million Series … Read More
Today we announced the launch of two new funds totaling $500 million to build and invest in promising life sciences companies with transformative human therapeutic technologies.
ACELYRIN, INC., a biopharma company focused on providing patients life-changing new treatment options by identifying, acquiring, and accelerating development and commercialization of promising drug candidates, today announced its launch backed by Series A financing from Westlake Village BioPartners.
Westlake Village BioPartners is pleased to have founded and participated in the Series A financing of Kyverna Therapeutics, a cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for serious autoimmune diseases. Kyverna has raised $25 million in a Series A investment from Vida Ventures, Westlake Village BioPartners, and Gilead Sciences
Fast Company recently published an article entitled, “The top tech trends of 2020, from AI to 5G.” Westlake Village BioPartners’ Sean Harper and Beth Seidenberg provided their perspective on the promising role gene therapy could play in the treatment of solid tumors. You can read more about what they and other industry leaders had to … Read More
Westlake Village BioPartners today announced it participated in the $75 million Series B financing of Tmunity Therapeutics, a company focused on delivering the full potential of next-generation T cell immunotherapy.
Westlake Village BioPartners is pleased to have seeded and been a major contributor to the Series A funding round for programmable cell therapy company Arsenal Biosciences. The company will integrate technologies such as CRISPR-based genome engineering, scaled and high throughput target identification, synthetic biology, and machine learning to advance a new paradigm to discover and develop immune cell therapies, initially for cancer.
At the recent Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association meeting, several themes emerged as essential ingredients in building the Los Angeles biotech hub. Westlake Village BioPartners’ managing director Sean Harper participated in a panel discussion that examined the issues facing Los Angeles as it grows its life sciences industry. The event, titled “Los Angeles: The Next Major Biotechnology … Read More
Los Angeles has a long history of reinventing itself. From a village of 5,000 people in the 1870s, focused on cattle farming and agriculture; to establishing ports, railways, banks and factories designed to challenge San Francisco; to producing one-quarter of the world’s total oil supply by 1923; to the boomtown days of Hollywood from 1913-1941; … Read More
At the recent Yale University Innovation Summit, Westlake Village BioPartners managing director Sean Harper presented an overview of the current advances in life sciences, his views on what is happening in the biotech venture capital world right now, and also provided some advice to entrepreneurs on how to build a successful business. As part of … Read More
Recently, Beth Seidenberg made news at the Fortune Brainstorm Health conference, revealing that cell therapy startup Tmunity has brought a product into human clinical trials that has knocked out multiple cancer genes.
Today Forbes announced that Westlake Village BioPartners founding managing director Beth Seidenberg, MD, has been ranked 59 on the annual Midas List of the world’s top 100 technology venture capitalists.
Building a company from scratch can be exciting and rewarding and if you do it right you can change the world. However, it can also be challenging and is fraught with risk. While some venture capital firms are primarily focused on financials, at Westlake Village BioPartners our philosophy is to build world-class companies by taking a different approach.
Recently, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal reported on what Westlake Village BioPartners is doing in the greater Los Angeles area to establish a life sciences hub. It is exciting to know we are playing our part catalyzing the industry in this region!
We are sprinting into what we believe is the Golden Age of Biotechnology—and the implications for humanity are profound. Just like in other industries in the past, such as aerospace and computing, we are now at an inflection point in biotechnology where we can address the most fundamental of human concerns: how to live longer, healthier lives, free of disease.
Westlake Village BioPartners, a new venture firm exclusively focused on investing in life sciences, announced the launch of the firm’s first fund with $320 million of committed capital.