Tranquis Therapeutics Raises $30 Million in Series A Round of Financing

Tranquis Therapeutics is discovering and developing innovative medicines to revolutionize the management of neurodegenerative and aging-related diseases and dramatically reduce the burden these illnesses place on patients, families, and societies worldwide.

Fremont, CA:Tranquis Therapeutics, a San Mateo, Calif.-based private immuno-neurology company, raised $30m in Series A round of financing. The financing was co-led by Remiges Ventures and SR One and included participation from Vivo Capital, Hillsborough Venture, Correlation Ventures, and other investors. The company intends to use the newly raised funds to complete the non-clinical development work for its pipeline program, TQS-168, and advance it toward clinical proof of concept in orphan diseases such as ALS or FTD expanding the discovery platform and pipeline with next-generation compounds.[vendor_logo_first]

Tranquis Therapeutics' novel therapeutic approach stems from groundbreaking research at the Stanford laboratory of Professor Edgar Engleman, MD, Tranquis' scientific founder. It indicates that myeloid immune cell dysfunction underlies a variety of nervous system disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Parkinson's Disease (PD), Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and age-related neuropathology.

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"Worldwide, diseases of neurodegeneration and aging place an enormous burden on patients, families and societies, and we are inspired by the potential for this groundbreaking immuno-neurology platform to have an important impact on health and quality of life," said Sanjay Kakkar, MD, MSc, MPH, President and CEO of Tranquis. "For our lead program, TQS-168, we have demonstrated in vitro the ability to restore a key metabolic pathway we have shown is dysfunctional in the myeloid immune cells of patients with neurodegenerative diseases, as well as highly encouraging in vivo effects in challenging neurodegenerative disease models. With the support of our investors and proceeds from the Series A financing, we plan to complete the non-clinical development work for our pipeline program, TQS-168, and advance it toward clinical proof of concept in orphan diseases such as ALS or FTD, while further expanding our discovery platform and pipeline with next generation compounds. We also have identified an on-target biomarker that will help inform and possibly accelerate our clinical development program."

"Tranquis' novel approach targeting the cell metabolism for neuroinflammation shows great promise, and we look forward to the initiation of clinical development, planned for next year. If successful, this could represent a new class of medicines for neurodegenerative diseases, where the need for new therapies is significant in part because of historical development challenges with other approaches," said Taro Inaba, Founder and Managing Partner at Remiges Ventures.

"We became interested in the scientific hypothesis behind Tranquis early-on and invested in the seed round. We are even more excited now that the company has advanced significantly with the successful transfer of the technology from Stanford to Tranquis, recruitment of the management team, including Dr. Sanjay Kakkar, continued progress on its programs, and the expansion of the investor syndicate," said Rajeev Dadoo, Partner at SR One.

It is now understood that neurodegenerative diseases begin with a specific injury or defect that results in the deposition or accumulation of toxic substances, which induces an inflammatory myeloid cell response. Myeloid cells, such as brain resident microglia and peripheral macrophages, usually take up and break down everything from dying cells to foreign matter, but if overwhelmed, they can become inflamed and secrete a range of tissue-damaging molecules. Tranquis' initial therapeutic candidates target a master metabolic pathway that is down-regulated in myeloid cells in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

"Our focus is across the whole spectrum of myeloid cell pathology, seeking to restore normal myeloid cell function that in turn promotes the effective uptake and cell metabolism of toxins by myeloid cells and reduces their inflammatory responses, as well as influencing the trafficking of myeloid cells from the periphery to the central nervous system," said Dr.Engleman. In addition to his research career and academic appointments at Stanford, Dr.Engleman has been a founder of multiple biopharmaceutical companies, including Genelabs, Dendreon, Medeor, Bolt, and Tranquis, and is a founding partner at Vivo Capital.

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