Electra Therapeutics, Inc.

Electra’s series C cash will also be used to help expand studies of ELA026 into hematologic cancers and help move another SIRP-targeted program into the clinic.\n Electra Therapeutics is incandescent, glowing on the heels of a $183 million series C financing intended to fuel the biotech’s just-launched pivotal trial for its rare disease candidate.Nextech and EQT Life Sciences co-led the charge, with participation from Sanofi, Mubadala Capital, OrbiMed, Blue Owl Capital and RA Capital Management, among others, according to an Oct. 22 release.The oversubscribed series C is a significant jump from the $84 million Electra raised in 2022, especially given the current rocky financing environment. The fundraise “reflects some encouraging signs in the market,” Electra President and CEO Kathy Dong told Fierce Biotech.“There are numerous investors who are truly digging in and evaluating opportunities to deploy capital, and our profile resonated with them,” Dong said in an emailed statement, citing Electra’s clinical proof of concept data, a lead program in late-stage development in an area of high unmet need, plus a growing pipeline.“It was highly encouraging to hear from multiple investors that our first-in-class and first-in-disease story was differentiating and refreshing, and that there is support in the ecosystem for innovation,” she added.The South San Francisco-based biotech will channel the new funds toward a global phase 2/3 trial evaluating its lead candidate ELA026. The potentially first-in-class monoclonal antibody targets signal regulatory proteins (SIRP) in an effort to selectively deplete pathological immune cells.The pivotal trial is assessing ELA026 as a front-line treatment for secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH), a rare hyperinflammatory disease that lacks sufficient therapeutic options. The condition can be triggered by cancer, infection, autoimmune disease or immunotherapy and requires immediate intervention. The pivotal portion of the study includes both adults and children and has already started dosing at sites in the U.S. and Europe. The study is designed to enroll up to 90 patients, with the primary endpoint measuring overall survival at Week 8.Dong expects trial enrollment to wrap in 2027 and for top-line results to read out shortly after that. The trial is a continuation of a phase 1b study in malignancy-associated HLH—the condition when it is tied to cancer—in which ELA026 achieved an 100% overall survival rate at eight weeks.The investigational therapy has received breakthrough designation from the FDA and priority medicines designation from European regulators, the first asset to receive such statuses in sHLH, according to the biotech.“We are working closely with regulatory agencies and leveraging these designations to accelerate development and bring ELA026 to patients as quickly as possible,” Electra Chief Medical Officer Kim-Hien Dao, Ph.D., said in a separate Oct. 22 release.The biotech’s interactions with the FDA have been very collaborative, according to Dong.“They recognize the high unmet need in sHLH and the potential of ELA026 to provide meaningful benefit for patients,” the CEO said about the agency.Dong, who shifted from Electra’s parent Star Therapeutics to her current CEO role back in 2023, believes ELA026 in sHLH has the potential to be “effectively commercialized by a small company” and that Electra has “a good understanding” of what it takes to successfully bring the therapy to market.“A focused commercial team can engage key clinicians, as treatment is largely concentrated within academic medical centers,” Dong explained, leaning on past commercialization chops. The Novartis and Gilead Sciences alum brings extensive experience in drug marketing and launches, most notably with Gilead’s hepatitis C breakthroughs Sovaldi and Harvoni.She also underscored the rapid identification of patients that typically happens given the urgent and well-defined nature of the symptoms, which helps patients efficiently access treatment.But commercialization is still some time away. For now, Electra’s series C cash will also be used to help expand studies of ELA026 into hematologic cancers and help move another SIRP-targeted program called ELA822 into the clinic for immunology and inflammation conditions. 

An immunology startup has a hefty round of cash to get its lead program through a pivotal study and advance another preclinical drug into human testing. Electra Therapeutics on Wednesday closed a $183 million Series C, with participation from Sanofi. It’s aiming to fund a Phase 2/3 trial for ELA026, which is being studied in a rare disease that usually arises as a secondary condition to some blood cancers and autoimmune disorders. The trial has started enrolling, and is expected to be completed in 2027, CEO Kathy Dong told Endpoints News . The disease is secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, or sHLH. Patients with sHLH experience overactive immune responses that need to be treated as soon as possible. The “hyperinflammatory effect” can be so severe that the cytokines released by the immune cells lead to organ failure and death, Dong said. ELA026 attempts to deplete the overactive cells by targeting the SIRP pathway. Most immune cells, like myeloids and T cells, have SIRP receptors on their surface, which is overexpressed in patients with sHLH. By depleting the cells, ELA026 can restore the immune system to its normal state, and patients can receive treatment for their primary diseases. “We’re essentially taking advantage of SIRP being on these overactivated cells,” Dong said. “Antibodies bind to them, deplete them, and that will then help address the underlying pathology in many of these diseases in immunology and inflammation, as well as cancer.” The Phase 2/3 trial is expected to enroll about 60 sHLH patients who also have a hematological malignancy, and another 30 with other underlying conditions. The company will measure ELA026’s overall survival after eight weeks and compare results to a historical control group. Dong expressed confidence that ELA026 could meet expectations since it achieved a 100% survival rate in a smaller Phase 1b study, compared to 50% in the historical control. She also said Electra would be conducting analyses to ensure ELA026’s efficacy is not confounded by the drugs that patients are taking for their other diseases. Beyond sHLH, the South San Francisco-based biotech also intends to test ELA026 in cancer itself, though it has not yet disclosed any specifics. However, Dong noted that preclinical testing has shown some promise in T cell malignancies and B cell lymphomas. The money from the Series C will also be used to get ELA822 into the clinic. While ELA026 targets the SIRP receptors on both myeloids and T cells, ELA822 only goes after the receptors on T cells. The lead indication for ELA822 has not yet been disclosed. “You can imagine that there is a very long list of diseases where T cells play a role in driving pathology,” Dong said. “So we’re really excited for its broad application here.” Nextech and EQT Life Sciences co-led the financing. In addition to Sanofi, other new investors include HBM Healthcare Investments and Mubadala Capital. It also counted returning investors like OrbiMed, Cormorant Asset Management and Blue Owl Capital. The Series C comes a few years after Electra raised an $84 million Series B in February 2022.

Electra Therapeutics has raised $183 million in series C financing to propel its lead drug candidate ELA026 into a pivotal Phase II/III trial and expand its portfolio of therapies targeting signal regulatory proteins (SIRP) in immune-driven diseases and cancer.The financing follows the start of patient dosing in SURPASS, a global pivotal study of ELA026 for secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH), a rare and often fatal hyperinflammatory condition with few treatment options. It can be triggered by malignancy, infection, autoimmune disease or immunotherapy.There's no FDA-approved therapy specifically for the sHLH, but current treatments include broad immunosuppression with steroids and chemotherapy, as well as anti-cytokine therapies.Snuffing out inflammation firestormELA026 is a monoclonal antibody that binds to SIRP on immune cells, and works by selectively depleting the pathological myeloid cells and T lymphocytes driving the cytokine storm that underlies sHLH."What we're doing here is we're essentially…putting, very rapidly, a blanket over this firestorm by taking out these principal cells that drive this inflammation," CEO Kathy Dong told FirstWord. ELA026 is "very targeted and it allows…the rest of your immune system to recover, so there's the efficacy of being rapid and potent, but there's the safety benefit of not [having] this broad, indiscriminate suppression of your immune system."The candidate has earned FDA breakthrough therapy status and a PRIME designation from the European Medicines Agency.Promising early dataIn an earlier Phase Ib study, 100% of adult patients with malignancy-associated HLH survived to eight weeks following frontline treatment with the drug, compared to a rate of roughly 50% reported for available therapies in historical benchmarks. Additionally, all patients achieved clinical response by the four-week mark and all were discharged from hospital. Biomarker data also indicated a rapid reduction in inflammation consistent with clinical improvement, according to Electra."We are very impressed by the compelling clinical data the Electra team has generated for ELA026 in sHLH," said Thomas Geninatti of Nextech, which co-led the round along with EQT Life Sciences.New backers Sanofi, HBM Healthcare Investments and Mubadala Capital also contributed, alongside existing investors such as Redmile Group, New Leaf Venture Partners, Westlake BioPartners, Cormorant Asset Management, Blue Owl Capital, and RA Capital. The company raised $84 million in a series B round nearly four years ago."These encouraging results provide validation for targeting SIRP as a novel mechanism and position Electra to expand its application across immunology and oncology," Geninatti added.Blood cancersThe company's next steps will focus on completing global enrollment for SURPASS, and also exploring ELA026's potential in certain blood cancers. Hyperinflammation in sHLH is triggered by an underlying condition, and the most prevalent of these is malignancy. According to Dong, investigators in the Phase Ib study in sHLH observed cases where ELA026 may have had an anti-tumour effect in treating the underlying cancer."An area where we're seeing a really compelling signal is T cell malignancy," she said. "So here again, ELA026 is depleting the activated T cells, and the tumour cells themselves can be depleted with our drug." The company is planning to initiate a study of ELA026 in haematologic malignancy next year.It is also advancing a second candidate, ELA822, which selectively targets activated T lymphocytes, into clinical testing for "broad application" across immunology and inflammation disorders.