Orikine Bio, a biotech company developing a novel proprietary platform for cytokine-based therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, announces the successful closing of a €5.5m seed financing that will support the company to advance candidates through pre-clinical development. Asabys Partners, Barcelona-based VC firm focused on healthcare innovation investing from its fund Sabadell Asabys II, joins AdBio Partners, French life sciences venture capital firm and initial investor, both CataloniaBio & HealthTech members.

Orikine Bio is a spin-off from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and was co-founded by Dr. Luis Serrano, Dr. Ariadna Montero, Dr. Javier Delgado, Dr. Alejo Chorny and AdBio Partners in 2022. The company’s unique synthetic biology platform delivers optimized and novel engineered cytokines called Foldikines©.

Sylvain Sachot, Partner at Asabys Partners, states “Orikine Bio’s uniqueness resides in the company’s profound understanding of the immunological processes underlying autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and its ability to modulate these anomalies. The company is targeting a large medical need, and we look forward to working with the management in developing and bringing new immune modulators to the market".

“Orikine Bio's Foldikines© could become blockbusters drugs in immunology and this immediately convinced us of the potential of the project. We were highly motivated to cofound the company and shape the initial business plan. We are delighted to welcome Asabys Partners in the Seed Financing, all ingredients are in place for Orikine Bio to become a leader in its space” explains Clement Bertholet, MsC, Partner at AdBio.

Alejo Chorny, Co-founder and CEO of Orikine Bio, adds “We are delighted to announce the successful completion of our seed financing round, a significant milestone for our biotech company focused on engineered cytokines for immune-mediated diseases. This funding injection not only validates the tremendous potential of our approach but also provides us with the resources to advance our groundbreaking work. We are grateful for the support and confidence shown by our investors and remain committed to delivering transformative therapies that have the power to reshape the lives of patients battling immune-mediated diseases worldwide”.

Photo: Javier Delgado (co-founder of Orikine), Ariadna Montero (co-founder of Orikine), Alejo Chorny (co-founder and CEO of Orikine), Luis Serrano (co-founder of Orikine), Sylvain Sachot (Partner Asabys), Alain Huriez (Managing Partner AdBio), Isabel Jimenez (Associate Asabys)