Gyroscope Therapeutics Ltd.

Verdiva aims to advance a portfolio of next-generation oral and injectable treatments with first-in-class or best-in-class potential. Credit: Nuthawut Somsuk via Getty Images. As the obesity drug market continues to expand, Verdiva Bio has officially launched as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on obesity and other cardiometabolic disorders. The company has secured $410m in an oversubscribed Series A funding round, co-led by Forbion and General Atlantic, with contributions from investors such as RA Capital Management, OrbiMed, Logos Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, and LYFE Capital. The funding will advance Verdiva’s pipeline of next-generation oral and injectable therapies that aim to achieve first-in-class or best-in-class status. UK-based Verdiva’s portfolio comprises assets licensed from China-based Sciwind Biosciences, granting the company global rights outside Greater China and South Korea. This includes a Phase II-ready oral glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) ecnoglutide, a potential first-in-class oral amylin agonist, and a long-acting subcutaneous amylin agonist. These therapies aim to target weight loss and maintenance, utilising proprietary oral delivery technology designed to enhance dosing convenience, scalability, and accessibility for broader patient populations. Khurem Farooq, previously CEO of Aiolos Bio and Gyroscope Therapeutics, has been appointed as Verdiva’s CEO, supported by a leadership team that includes senior executives from Aiolos Bio and Boehringer Ingelheim. In addition, Mark Pruzanski has been named chairman of the board. “Our most mature programme has the potential to be a first-in-class, once-weekly oral treatment for obesity and weight loss maintenance that could dramatically improve patient access and affordability,” said Farooq in the 8 January announcement. Verdiva has indicated plans to further expand its portfolio through additional in-licensing deals, signalling a broader ambition in the obesity and cardiometabolic space. The company’s approach reflects a growing trend of Western biotechs acquiring and advancing assets from Chinese pharmaceutical companies, with Verdiva joining other high-profile partnerships in the field. Chinese companies such as Sciwind Biosciences have become pivotal in the development of innovative obesity medications, with global entities such as MSD and AstraZeneca also striking deals to build their portfolios. The timing of Verdiva’s launch underscores the increasing demand for weight-loss treatments, driven by the success of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy (semaglutide), and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatide). Wegovy is forecast to bring in $19.6bn in sales in 2030, with Zepbound estimated to make $27.6bn the same year, according to GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center. GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.

CEO and Co-Founder of Aiolos Bio and previous CEO of Gyroscope, Khurem Farooq joins as independent board member AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- VectorY Therapeutics, a biotech company developing innovative vectorized antibody therapies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of industry veteran Khurem Farooq as independent board member, effective immediately. Khurem Farooq is an accomplished industry leader who brings more than 20 years of operational and drug development experience. He currently serves as the CEO at Aiolos Bio which recently announced an agreement to be acquired by GSK. Previously Khurem served as the CEO of Gyroscope, which was acquired by Novartis in 2021. Prior to Gyroscope, Khurem was Senior Vice President of the Immunology and Ophthalmology business unit at Genentech, part of the Roche Group, where he led the commercialization and launch planning of a number of medicines and contributed to the development of several pipeline products. Khurem holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration as well as an Honours degree in Biological Sciences. The appointment follows VectorY’s $138m series A announced in November 2023, co-led by EQT Life Sciences and the Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II, to support clinical development of the company’s lead program in ALS, and preclinical development of pipeline programs based on VectorY’s broad technology platform. Sander van Deventer, CEO of VectorY, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Khurem to VectorY as an independent board member. He brings a wealth of leadership experience across operations, strategy and drug development in the pharma and biotech industry, which will be invaluable as we move in the next stage of growth of our company and advance our lead program VTx-002 for the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) towards clinical development .” Khurem Farooq, Independent board member at VectorY, said: “I am excited to join this talented team at such a pivotal time. I am very impressed with VectorY’s unique capabilities to combine gene and antibody therapy drug development as well as its pipeline progress. The company’s innovative approach has the potential to overcome limitations of current therapies and translate into disease-modifying treatments across multiple neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS.” -Ends- Photograph available upon request Notes to Editors About VectorY VectorY is on a mission to provide patients with neurodegenerative diseases a longer, better life by creating transformative vectorized antibody treatments. Our platform combines the promise of precise therapeutic antibodies with one-time AAV-based delivery to the CNS. Unique in-house expertise in antibodies, AAV vectors, protein degradation, manufacturing and neuroscience drives the rapid development of much needed disease-modifying therapies for neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Huntington’s disease. For more information, see . About VTx-002 VTx-002 is being developed to delay disease progression and preserve the quality of life of ALS patients. VTx-002, currently in preclinical development, is a vectorized antibody that selectively clears misfolded and aggregated TDP-43 from the cytoplasm of neuronal cells. Thereby, it restores the essential function of TDP-43 in the nucleus leading to preservation of neuronal cell function and health. ALS is a devastating condition that in the Western world has an estimated lifetime risk of 1:250 in males and 1:400 in females. It is characterized by the progressive degeneration of motor neurons, which leads to an average life expectancy after diagnosis of only two to five years. Presently there is no cure available to stop or reverse ALS and currently available treatments only slow disease progression by months.

GSK moved quickly to add the long-acting anti-TSLP antibody to its portfolio, Well, that was fast. Seventy seven days after Aiolos Bio launched to the public, GSK has disclosed a deal to buy the biotech and its phase 2 asthma treatment for $1 billion upfront and up to $400 million in regulatory milestones. Aiolos broke cover in late October, launching with a $245 million series A round co-led by Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Forbion and Sofinnova Investments. The biotech raised the money to fund the development of a long-acting anti-TSLP monoclonal antibody, AIO-001, that it picked up from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals two months earlier. Other companies got to the TSLP opportunity before GSK. Amgen and AstraZeneca won FDA approval for an anti-TSLP antibody, Tezspire, late in 2021. Novartis hung a 'for sale' sign on its midphase TSLP prospect, CSJ117, months after the FDA authorized Tezspire.  GSK has weighed up the competition and bet up to $1.4 billion on AIO-001. In a statement, Tony Wood, chief scientific officer at GSK, called AIO-001 a potentially best-in-class medicine that could expand the company’s biologics portfolio to the 40% of severe asthma patients with low T2 inflammation.  Post-hoc analyses of phase 2/3 trials of Tezspire linked the antibody to reductions in exacerbations in T2 low asthmas, a subgroup that other drugs, including GSK’s Nucala and phase 3 prospect depemokimab, aren’t designed to treat. Tezspire’s broad efficacy led the FDA to make it the first asthma drug approved for severe asthma without phenotypic limitations, such as eosinophilic, or biomarker restrictions. The belief that AIO-001 can improve on Tezspire rests, in part, on its dosing schedule. Tezspire is given subcutaneously once a month. GSK believes the “enhanced potency and half-life extension technology” of AIO-001 could support dosing every six months. The Big Pharma’s work on the HIV drugs Cabenuva and Apretude has shown how longer-lasting medicines can win market share. GSK, which will acquire rights to AIO-001 outside of Greater China, plans to run a phase 2 trial in adults with asthma and is assessing whether to expand development into other indications, including chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. Amgen and AstraZeneca are running phase 3 trials of Tezspire in people with chronic rhinosinusitis and eosinophilic esophagitis. The deal represents another successful exit for Aiolos CEO Khurem Farooq, who co-founded the biotech with Tony Adamis, M.D., after leading Gyroscope Therapeutics to an $800 million takeover by Novartis.