Oyster Therapeutics, previously Kesmalea Therapeutics, has closed a US$60 million Series A-2 financing. The round was led by 4BIO Capital and included Eli Lilly and Company, CE Ventures, Actium Group, and TOHO Ventures. The London-based company develops next-generation targeted protein degraders for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Funding details
Existing investors Syncona, Oxford Science Enterprises, Mission BioCapital, and MGB Ventures also participated. The proceeds will advance an oral, brain-penetrant tau degrader toward clinical development. Funding will also support the company’s SELFTAC platform, which aims to create small targeted protein degraders.
Company focus
Oyster is focused on bringing targeted protein degradation to the central nervous system. Many conventional degraders are larger molecules that struggle to enter the brain. The SELFTAC platform is designed to turn these larger bifunctional degraders into smaller molecules.
Tau degrader program
Oyster’s lead program is an oral degrader targeting tau. It is designed to remove pathological forms of tau while preserving healthy tau. An oral formulation is preferred for large patient populations because it is convenient and cheaper to manufacture.
The company has also entered a sponsored research agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital. The work is led by Dr. Catarina Silva, a tau researcher and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. The collaboration will use patient-derived neuronal cell lines and methods to generate and detect oligomeric tau.