In what seems to be a continuing trend, even amid the pandemic, a Silicon Valley startup is expanding outside of California to the North Texas region.
CAGE Bio Inc., a clinical-stage biotech company focused on developing dermatology, inflammation and immunology products, announced plans to move into new digs at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth to use the center’s laboratory space and resources. Currently, the company is based out of Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s JLABS @ MBC BioLabs.
“We are excited to become a part of the vibrant and rapidly growing Dallas Fort Worth biotech ecosystem,” said Nitin Joshi, CEO of CAGE Bio, in a prepared statement. “The caliber of scientific professionals and academic institutions coupled with the entrepreneurial spirit of the DFW area is a huge attraction to us. HSC offers the perfect launchpad for companies such as ours to establish and grow.”
The company focuses on developing topical products for localized treatment, using a proprietary ionic liquid technology and proprietary drug-delivery platform. Ionic liquid is a salt in which ions are poorly coordinated, allowing for solvents to be liquidized at lower temperatures and making them more easily engineered for tailor-made properties, according to CAGE. Launched in 2018, the company raised more than $5.5 million in equity funding in 2019 from 36 investors, in a deal that included more than $2.1 million in debt cancelation and more than $3.4 million in new cash, according to a filing with the SEC.
The company’s technology was originally licensed from the University of California at Santa Barbra. Earlier this month, CAGE announced a research and development agreement with Japan-based Nitto Denko Corporation to develop therapeutic drug formulations for the skin.
“Ionic liquids are an emerging class of materials that can solve some of the previously unsolved problems in medicine. Their tunability and scalability make them particularly appealing as novel therapeutic substances” said Samir Mitragotri, CAGE Bio co-founder, in a prepared statement.
CAGE is led by co-founder and CEO Joshi. Its board is led by Ravi Srinivasan, who founded Dallas-based biotech startup OncoNano Medicine, which has raised nearly $57 million in VC dollars and grants since its founding in 2014, with backers including Salem Partners and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
The move to UNT HSC in Fort Worth is part of a broader effort at the university to deepen its ties to health care technology and biotech. In addition to technology that helps detect Alzheimer’s Disease, which it licensed to Fort Worth startup Cx Precision Medicine, and developing cancer drug treatment tech to uses nanoparticles, UNT HSC is looking to create more innovation and entrepreneurship in the region through an entrepreneur-in-residence program created in a partnership with local VC firm Bios Partners. It is also working to help get Fort Worth’s Global Entrepreneurship Week back up and running.
Over the past few months, the North Texas region has seen increased activity in the biotech industry. Fort Worth- and Paris-based biotech company Eyevensys raised $30 million in a Series B round led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund in January. In April, Dallas-based central nervous system-focused biotech startup Taysha Gene Therapeutics emerged from stealth with the announcement of a $30 million Seed round led by PBM Capital and Nolan Capital. That same month, Toronto-based health care AI startup Perimeter Medical Imaging announced it would be moving its headquarters to the region after receiving a $7.4 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, and Dallas-based cancer drug development biotech company Lantern Pharma filed for IPO, which netted the company about $26 million.
“We are excited to be able to support CAGE Bio and look forward to exploring collaborations,” said Robert McClain, associate vice president of research and innovation at UNT HSC, in a prepared statement. “CAGE Bio was founded by a team with remarkable industry and entrepreneurial experience. [It’s] an impressive addition to the Fort Worth entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
