Startups, BioPharma

Juvenescence raises $50 million in Series A, buys minority stake in AgeX

Firm invests $5 million in preclinical company developing drugs for age-related degenerative diseases.

A UK-headquartered company focused on developing therapies to slow or reverse the effects of aging has raised $50 million in a Series A funding round.

Juvenescence Limited, based in Douglas, on the Isle of Man, said Monday that the round was oversubscribed with participation from founders, insiders, institutional investors and family offices, and that the company has raised $63 million since its October 2016 founding.

In related news, Juvenescence made a $5 million equity investment in AgeX Therapeutics, a subsidiary of publicly traded company BioTime focused on developing cell-based therapies for age-related degenerative diseases. AgeX had previously raised $10.8 million from investors last year, $3.2 million from the sale of its minority stake in Ascendance Biotechnology and a $386,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health. With its investment, consisting of the purchase of 2 million shares, Juvenescence has acquired a 7 percent stake in AgeX, while BioTime owns about 80.6 percent. All of AgeX’s product candidates are in preclinical development.

Juvenescence’s portfolio includes Insilico Medicine, which uses artificial intelligence for drug discovery and aging research; Juvenescence AI, a joint venture with Insilico; NetraPharma, which uses artificial intelligence to improve clinical trial design; and LyGenesis, developing technology to use patients’ lymph nodes to grow ectopic organs.

A paper last year by researchers at the University of Liverpool in the UK noted that even adding 2.2 years of additional life expectancy would yield $7 trillion in savings to the US healthcare system over the next 50 years. The paper listed nearly three dozen companies involved in longevity and anti-aging science, including Insilico. The list broke down companies by business area, including pharmacological targets, direct-to-consumer, big data, regenerative medicine and others.

Photo: Getty Images

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