Advancing a New Approach to Treat Autoimmune Disease
Backdrop: Severe autoimmune and inflammatory diseases have long been treated by drugs that globally suppress the immune system. These approaches come with significant adverse side effects often rendering patients susceptible to infections. Delinia leveraged novel insights into the immunologic basis of autoimmunity to develop a new class of safer, more effective therapies that work by modulating regulatory T cells (“Tregs”) to restore normal immune balance, without suppressing protective immunity.
Atlas’ Role: Atlas co-led Delinia’s Seed and Series A rounds and recruited Saurabh Saha as CEO, Jeff Tong as executive chairman, and several Atlas entrepreneurs-in-residence as consultants and founding team members. Delinia’s development, manufacturing, and business leadership teams, including the CEO, incubated at Atlas and worked closely with Atlas partner Dave Grayzel and principal Michael Gladstone to execute on the company’s product development and business strategies.
Today: Delinia was acquired by Celgene in January 2017 for up to $775M, 15 months after Atlas’ initial investment. Celgene is advancing Delinia’s program toward the clinic.