MBX Biosciences, an Indiana University faculty-created startup that develops peptide therapies for the treatment of endocrine and metabolic diseases, raised $163.2 million in its U.S. initial public offering.
The company’s peptides are based on chemistry developed by a research team led by Richard DiMarchi, scientific cofounder of MBX Biosciences and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences and Linda and Jack Gill Chair at the Gill Institute for Biomolecular Sciences at IU Bloomington.
MBX Biosciences, which is headquartered in Carmel, Ind., aims to transform native peptides to innovative therapeutics to improve clinical outcomes and help individuals with endocrine and metabolic diseases, such as hypoparathyroidism and obesity, live healthier lives. The company plans to advance a pipeline of peptide hormone analogs with drug candidates such as MBX 2109, a treatment for chronic hypoparathyroidism, and MBX 4291, an obesity treatment. By taking MBX Biosciences public, the company can further its goal of transforming treatments for endocrine and metabolic diseases through the creation of safe and effective therapeutics.
“Our recent successful IPO marks a significant milestone in our journey to develop innovative new therapies leveraging our Precision Endocrine Peptide™, or PEP™ platform,” said Kent Hawryluk, president and CEO of MBX Biosciences. “This achievement reflects our team’s dedication, as well as strong support from our investors. I am optimistic about MBX’s future and excited to continue advancing our clinical stage and discovery programs forward to improve clinical outcomes and simplify disease management for patients.”
DiMarchi founded the company alongside Hawryluk, an IU alumnus, in 2019. It is the eighth biotechnology startup co-founded by DiMarchi and the sixth to successfully transition from venture funding to the next stage of commercialization.
IU Ventures, IU’s early-stage venture and angel investment arm, is one of several leading life sciences investors that financially supported the launch of MBX Biosciences. It has invested nearly $2 million in MBX Biosciences through the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund to support the company’s discovery and development of novel therapeutics to address unmet medical needs.
Before coming to IU, DiMarchi had a 20-year long career at Eli Lilly and Company where he led diabetes research. In 2003, he joined IU Bloomington’s chemistry faculty as a Gill Chair, continuing his work in chemistry and pharmacology. DiMarchi is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a co-inventor of more than 100 U.S. patents and co-author of more than 250 scientific papers.
In April, DiMarchi was honored with the 2024 Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award for his groundbreaking research on transforming obesity treatments. He was also recognized as an Indiana 250 Honoree in the Health and Life Sciences from the Indiana Business Journal.
DiMarchi said that the company’s focus is treating endocrine diseases. The most advanced drug candidate is a peptide directed at once weekly treatment of hypoparathyroidism. The active ingredient has been chemically optimized through proprietary prodrug chemistry to extend the duration of action and flatten the pharmacokinetic profile to increase its therapeutic index, providing enhanced efficacy and safety.
“MBX Biosciences is a company co-founded five years ago by Kent Hawryluk, Tim Knickerbocker and me,” DiMarchi said. “Its technical foundation is the precision peptide chemistry as applied to therapeutic drug candidates that my IU laboratory has pioneered. The nature of this research has been a consistent interest of my professional endeavors that now extends over two decades at Indiana University and was preceded by two decades at Lilly Research laboratories.”
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