Biopharmaceutical company Aileron Therapeutics Inc. is ready to advance what it says is a new class of drugs called stapled peptides into clinical trials after boosting its series D round to $42 million.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts, company has closed a $12 million second tranche of its Series D round from investors Apple Tree Partners, Excel Venture Management, Lilly Ventures, Novartis Venture Funds, Roche Venture Fund and SR One. That money will fund a Phase 1 clinical trial for ALRN-5281, its lead drug for treatment of orphan endocrine disorders, early this year.
Aileron’s technology is based on a novel peptide stabilizing technique that it says allows its drugs to penetrate cells and modulate extracellular and intracellular protein-protein interactions that are critical in the development of human disease.
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Attempts to modulate intracellular processes have historically failed, the company says, because peptides are broken down into inactive fragments by circulating enzymes and filtered from the bloodstream. But the biotech company’s approach “staples” peptides into their biologically active shape to prevent them from being broken down and allows them to permeate previously “undruggable” targets.
ALRN-5281 is a growth-hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) agonist that the company is applying to the treatment of orphan endocrine disorders including adult growth hormone deficiency and HIV-associated lipodystrophy. It produces a more pulsatile release of growth hormone compared to traditional injection therapies, the company says, and minimizes the safety and tolerability issues associated with long-term growth hormone replacement.
Driven by improved methods of drug delivery, the market for human growth hormone drugs is forecast to reach $4.7 billion by 2018, with the U.S. representing the biggest market in light of an increasing number of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs available.
Founded in 2005, Aileron’s proprietary technology is based on the work of scientists at Harvard University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The company is also working with Roche to advance a series of drug candidates in the Swiss drugmaker’s therapeutic focus areas like cancer and inflammatory diseases.
[Video screen cap from Aileron Therapeutics]
