Esker Therapeutics Launches $70M Series A Financing

Esker Therapeutics, a San Francisco, CA-based precision medicine company, raised $70m in Series A financing.

Foresite Capital made the investment.

The company intends to use the funds to advance its pipeline, including a highly selective, clinical-stage TYK2 inhibitor and early-stage discovery programs.

Its pipeline is led by ESK-001, a highly selective TYK2 inhibitor with greater selectivity for TYK2 over JAK1 compared to current therapies in development. It is initially being developed for the treatment of psoriasis and is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers. 

Led by June Lee, M.D., founder, president and chief executive officer, Esker Therapeutics is a precision medicine company focused on the discovery, development and treatment of autoimmune disorders.

To advance its programs, the company is leveraging a precision analytics platform, powered by Foresite Labs. This platform comprises high-quality curated genetic, clinical and health records data, a systems immunology toolkit for prospective data collection, and tools for building patient registries. Combined with a team of experts specialized in precision medicine and immunology, this platform is informing which targets, pathways, indications, and patient subsets to pursue. 

TYK2 is a gene that encodes a member of the tyrosine kinase and, more specifically, the Janus kinases (JAKs) protein families. It is a central node in the signaling pathways of cytokines known to be key mediators of inflammation and autoimmune diseases. This validated target has the potential to effectively treat multiple autoimmune indications beyond psoriasis. In preclinical studies, ESK-001 demonstrated potent and highly selective TYK2 inhibition allowing for dosing at high levels, while avoiding unwanted side effects often seen with JAKs.

Beyond ESK-001, Esker’s pipeline includes additional discovery-stage assets focused on the causal drivers of multiple autoimmune disease indications.

Esker’s founding management team and board of directors, include:

  • June Lee, M.D., founder, president and CEO
  • Mark Bradley, chief development officer
  • David Zhang, Ph.D., senior vice president, chief information officer
  • Jim Tananbaum, M.D., board member at Esker, founder and CEO, Foresite Capital, co-founder, Foresite Labs
  • Vik Bajaj, Ph.D., board observer at Esker, co-founder and CEO, Foresite Labs and managing director, Foresite Capital
  • Michael Rome, Ph.D., board member at Esker,  managing director, Foresite Capital 

FinSMEs

05/05/2021