The launch of nChroma is backed by $75 million in financing, which was led by Cormorant Asset Management, ARCH Venture Partners, Atlas Venture and Newpath Partners and backed by a number of other investors.
The lead candidate therapy, CRMA-1001, for the new company will be aimed at the liver and will use epigenetic editing to treat hepatitis B and D. It will use lipid nanoparticles to do so, as these are effective at targeting the liver, but the new company will aim to make use of Nvelop’s novel delivery systems to move out of the liver going forward, something that has proved hard for the field in the past.
Nvelop’s CEO Jeff Walsh, previously at bluebird bio, will lead the new merged company and Catherine Stehman-Breen, Chroma Medicine’s CEO, will step down but remain as an advisor to nChroma. Jeff Marrazzo, co-founder of Spark Therapeutics and previously a board member of both Chroma and Nvelop, will serve as nChroma’s Chairman of the Board.
Combining talents
Genetic medicines have advanced enormously over the last decade, boosted by the success of the two mRNA vaccines during the pandemic, advances in gene therapy and the advent of technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 allowing precise gene editing.
Chroma Bio was launched in 2021 with $125 million in seed funding and aimed to take gene editing one step further by editing the epigenome, namely, markers on the genome that control the way genes are expressed in response to different stimuli.
Nvelop began in stealth mode in 2022, but officially launched earlier this year with $100 million in funding. Based on research from founders David Liu and Keith Joung, both gene editing pioneers, its focus was on delivery of genetic medicines and has two in vivo validated delivery approaches, DLVR-M and DLVR-X. Both the platforms aim to minimize or eradicate the use of viral proteins in vectors used to deliver therapy, make delivery more efficient and targeted and minimize off target side effects.
The new funding, alongside startup money raised by each company in recent years, will help the companies advance their combined technologies.
“This union represents a compelling opportunity to bring together a truly novel and differentiated cargo company and a next generation in vivo delivery company to fully enable the future of in vivo genetic medicine,” said Walsh in a press statement.
“The new company will allow us to leverage the technologies, talent and capital of both organizations to drive products into the clinic and to forge strategic partnerships to expand our reach into new tissues and diseases.”
