Candid Therapeutics Debuts with $370M Backed by Top Life Science VCs
CEO Ken Song shares how the biotech raised the 2nd largest financing in 2024 so far.
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Ken Song, the founder behind cancer drug developer RayzeBio which was acquired for 4.1 billion by Bristol Myers in December, is back with a new biotech company that has just closed $370M in financing from an impressive group of life science VCs.
Candid Therapeutics, announced the raise on Sept. 9th, debuting from stealth mode to develop therapies that treat autoimmune diseases.
The funding round was co-led by Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Fairmount, TCGX, and venBio Partners. Other participating investors include Foresite Capital, Third Rock Ventures, Fidelity Management, among others.
It has also acquired two promising drug candidates from Vignette Bio and TRC 2004, which are already “clinically validated,” according to the Founder and CEO Ken Song.
“We were very fortunate to have an incredible interest to fund candid therapeutics,” said Song. “We accomplished raising the financing in a very brief period of time, and ended up getting a large amount of interest. So much, we even had to turn some investors away.”
Behind the $370M ‘Mega Fundraise’
Candid is focused on bringing to market promising therapies that treat autoimmune diseases in a patient-friendly and scalable way to address a broad population.
There was a combination of factors that allowed this startup to come out the gate with this level of support from investors, Song explained.
“Number one is the overall sort of therapeutic area that we're working in, is one that investors recognize as being something that could become a mega blockbuster,” said Song.
“We're not talking about a drug that could do a billion or $5 billion a year in sales,” said Song. “This is a drug that, if it works, can do tens of billions a year in sales. These days you don’t see that many things that present themselves as that.”
What’s Next for Candid Therapeutics
Candid is San Diego’s second largest financing raised by a biotech startup in 2024, behind Mirador Therapeutics which launched with $400 million in March, led by Arch Venture Partners.
Headquartered in Carmel Valley, it has 17 employees. Others on Candid’s leadership team includes Arvind Kush, Candid’s CFO; Bernie Huyghe, its Chief Technology Officer and Scientific Officer; as well as Timothy Lu, its Chief Medical Officer.
Candid will be different than RayzeBio, according to Song, adding that the goal isn’t to “bring the band back together,” instead he wants to hire specialist and recruit talent where skills sets will be transferable.
“This is a different modality,” said Song. “We need different technical and clinical expertise. We’ll continue to hire and expand — we’ve got aggressive plans on the development side but will remain nimble. Our goal is to build out the best team of specialists possible.”