Analysis
Cyllene Therapeutics, a Paris- and Beverly Hills-based biotech formerly known as EG 427, announced the close of a €33 million (roughly $36 million) Series C on July 7, co-led by GordonMD Global Investments and Merck Ventures, the venture arm of German pharmaceutical giant Merck KGaA.
The financing will advance clinical development of EG110A, Cyllene's lead DNA-medicine candidate for severe neurogenic bladder conditions, built on the company's proprietary HERMES platform -- an engineered, non-replicating HSV-1 viral vector designed to deliver therapeutic genes directly to affected tissue without the safety concerns of a replicating virus.
“Additional participants in the round include Bpifrance's InnoBio 3 fund, T.”
Additional participants in the round include Bpifrance's InnoBio 3 fund, T. Andera Partners and Lamond Ventures -- a syndicate that leans heavily on European public and quasi-public biotech capital, a pattern that has become more common as private gene-therapy funding has tightened globally over the past two years.
The round places Cyllene in the same viral-vector gene-therapy category as larger, more clinically advanced players like uniQure and Sarepta Therapeutics, though at an early enough stage that Merck KGaA's strategic participation -- rather than the round size itself -- is the more meaningful signal of pharma-industry validation for the underlying HERMES platform.