Borealis Biosciences, Inc.

Venture capitalists have been scouring the globe in search of better immunology drugs. Biotech startup creator Versant Ventures is among them, having formed and funded several companies in recent years looking to change the way certain inflammatory diseases are treated.Versant isnt done with that effort. On Thursday, the firm revealed its latest foray into immunology research a startup called Granite Bio thats already secured $100 million in funding and has two drugs either in, or nearing, clinical testing.Granite is a product of Ridgeline Therapeutics, part of an initiative Versant hatched more than a decade ago to help turn scientific discoveries into new companies. Operating in stealth mode, the company raised a $30 million Series A led by Versant and Novartis venture arm in 2021 and a $70 million Series B from Forbion and Sanofis venture fund two years later.The startup is working on two antibody drugs for inflammatory conditions. One, dubbed GRT-001, is being developed for inflammatory bowel disease and is currently in Phase 1 testing in healthy volunteers, with a trial in ulcerative colitis patients expected later this year. Another, GRT-002, is seen as a new way to potentially treat itch and allergies and should start its first trial in 2026.GRT-001 homes in on white blood cells called pro-inflammatory monocytes, which are part of the immune systems response to infections and inflammation. According to Granite CEO Patrick Loustau, this approach targets the “cellular source“ of IBD and has the potential to “reset“ patients' immune systems, which could lead to better and longer-lasting results than existing therapies.Monocyte depleters could have a similar impact on the innate immune system as B-cell targeting drugs appear to have on the adaptive part of the bodys defenses, giving them the potential to treat a range of inflammatory conditions,Loustau wrote in an email to BioPharma Dive.Granites other drug, GRT-002, homes on IL-3, a different inflammatory cytokine than the ones targeted by drugs like Dupixent and Cosentyx. Granite, in a statement announcing its launch, noted how IL-3 is a key player in autoimmunity as well as a kind of immune response called type 2 inflammation.Versant has started up several immune disease-focused biotechsof late. In 2024 alone, the firm formed Santa Ana Therapeutics, a developer of targeted immune therapies, as well as Borealis Biosciences, which is focused on medicines for inflammatory kidney diseases.Immunology investments more than doubled last year, surging to about $3.1 billion among the private rounds involving the prominent venture firms tracked by BioPharma Dive. Theyre on a similar trajectory in 2025, with about $1 billion raised so far. '

Light Horse pursues a function-first approach with its genetic editing-based platform. Image credit: Shutterstock/ Hyejin Kang. Light Horse Therapeutics has entered the biotech scene with $62m in Series A financing and a multi-target collaboration with Novartis that will see the big pharma company use the new biotech’s drug discovery platform. The Series A was led by founding investor Versant Ventures with participation from Mubadala Capital, Bristol Myers Squibb, Taiho Ventures, and AbbVie, as per a 9 January press release. The news comes as Light Horse announced a partnership with Novartis in a deal that involves the former receiving a $25m upfront payment. The US-based company is also in line for $1bn in milestone payments, as well as royalties on products that make it to market. Light Horse says it “turns conventional drug discovery on its head” by pursuing a function-first approach with its genetic editing-based platform. The biotech’s technology uncovers novel functional sites in targets associated with diseases and then screening for chemistry. The biotech has already created several preclinical programmes in oncology indications with its platform. Other details of the Novartis collaboration were not disclosed, with Light Horse saying only that it will work with the big pharma company to “identify and develop potentially first-in-class therapeutics” using the biotech’s platform. Novartis’ head of discovery sciences John Tallarico said: “Light Horse’s high-calibre team has built a cutting-edge discovery platform that rapidly enables the exploration of core biological areas of interest, the identification of novel targets and the functionalisation of high-value targets.” Light Horse has not specifically disclosed which disease indications the company will focus on, saying only it will start by targeting the oncology space. Light Horse CEO Markus Renschler said: “Our initial focus addresses high-value, historically challenging oncology targets with the opportunity to apply the technology to other therapeutic areas in the future.” Versant Ventures has 37 healthcare companies listed as “current” in its portfolio, as per its website. The venture capital firm’s most recent pharma-based launch before Light Horse was Borealis Biosciences – a company developing RNA-based medicines for kidney disease – with $150m in August 2024 . Novartis was again heavily involved at the time, participating in the Series A financing and committing up to $100m in research funding. One of Versant’s most successful creations was Chinook Therapeutics, also a kidney disease-speciality pharma company. Novartis acquired the company for $3.5bn in 2023, four years after the biotech was founded.

Versant Ventures’ latest biotech emerged on Thursday morning with a $62 million Series A from Bristol Myers Squibb, AbbVie and others, plus a partnership with Novartis that could be worth as much as $1 billion. Light Horse Therapeutics is working on a precision genetic editing-based platform to make small molecules and is being led by former Cyteir CEO Markus Renschler. Its chair is Thomas Daniel, former president of global R&D at Celgene. Leading the oncology pipeline is chief scientific officer Laure Escoubet, who previously was at Zentalis. The San Diego-based startup also disclosed a cancer collaboration with Novartis worth $25 million upfront, but shared little else about the tie-up. Its scientific co-founders include Harvard associate professor Brian Liau, Scripps Research’s Ben Cravatt and Stanford professor Nathanael Gray. Light Horse said its goal is to flip “conventional drug discovery on its head.” Instead of a screening-first approach, it’s taking a “function-first” tack by identifying new functional domains and then screening for chemistry. The Light Horse unveiling follows a few Versant startup launches last year: kidney disease biotech Borealis Biosciences and obesity startup SixPeaks Bio . Six Versant portfolio companies have been bought in the past two years: VectivBio, Vertical, Chinook, RayzeBio, Jnana and Kate. Light Horse’s other investors include Mubadala Capital and Taiho Ventures.