Sherpa Healthcare leads Series A for Paq Therapeutics
Sherpa Healthcare Partners has led a $30 million Series A for Paq Therapeutics, a Chinese-founded biotech company specializing in treatments based on molecules that enhance the degradation of disease-causing entities.
Sherpa was established by the former healthcare heads at Legend Capital and closed its first US dollar fund at $200 million last year. It was joined in the Series A by Huagai Capital, MSA Capital, and MRL Ventures Fund, as well as by seed backers Nest.Bio Ventures and Matrix Partners China.
Paq’s technology is based on autophagy, the body’s most versatile mechanism for natural cellular degradation. Autophagy is the process by which cells remove unnecessary or dysfunctional components to protect against starvation.
The company leverages autophagosome-tethering compounds (ATTECs) – small molecules with the potential to catalyze and selectively enhance the degradation of disease-causing proteins as well as non-protein substrates, like lipids and pathogens, whose absence can help restore health. The initial focus is on a genetic neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no current treatment option.
The Series A funding will go towards advancing Paq’s ATTEC platform and developing a pipeline of treatments for other diseases that have limited existing treatment options. The company was formed as recently as last year.
Paq is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but has three Chinese co-founders: Nan Ji, previously of Kymera and Novartis, who also serves as the company’s president and CEO; Huaixiang Hao, who also used to work for Novartis; and Boxun Lu, a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai who specializes in neurodegenerative diseases. All three have doctoral-level qualifications from US universities.
“We see tremendous potential for autophagy-dependent degradation to achieve major therapeutic innovations leveraging the flexibility of small molecules to create cures and overcome serious diseases where therapeutic options are limited for patients,” said Cheng Xing, a managing partner at Sherpa, in a statement.
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