(Bloomberg) -- Tessera Therapeutics, a company developing a genetic approach to treat and prevent diseases with backing from Flagship Pioneering, raised more than $300 million in its latest round.
Tessera is experimenting with a technology called gene writing to fight cancer, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and multiple liver diseases, Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey von Maltzahn said. The funding “is about getting us into the clinic,” he said in an interview, without giving specifics on when human trials might begin.
Multiple drugmakers are using Crispr and other gene-editing technologies to develop new therapies for genetic disease. Somerville, Massachusetts-based Tessera's gene-writing technology is a variation on that theme -- it can change any single DNA letter to any other, insert or delete sections of DNA, or even add entire genes into the genome.
Flagship, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has launched numerous biotechnology companies, including Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna Inc. Flagship provided some of the funding for this round, along with other investors.
The investment “is a sign of the world's belief that gene writing is going to be a really valuable category,” said von Maltzahn, who's also one of Flagship's general partners.
One gene-writing technique consists of inserting small pieces of RNA into a cell, which tell it how to make a protein that changes the cell's DNA, von Maltzahn said. The RNA and proteins eventually break down, and the modification remains.
Gene writing has advantages over Crispr, which makes edits by breaking apart DNA and relying on cellular mechanisms to fill in the gaps, sometimes with unintended changes, von Maltzahn said. Tessera has not published any data on the approach, he said, but has presented at academic conferences.
Von Maltzahn declined to say exactly how much money Tessera raised in this round, but said that it was less than $400 million. The company raised $280 million in two prior funding rounds, according to data from PitchBook.
Tessera is not “planning on raising additional capital for the near future,” the CEO said.
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