BioWorld International Correspondent

DUBLIN, Ireland - Opsona Therapeutics Ltd. snagged one of the hottest names in biotechnology as part of its Series A investment. The firm, based here, secured the participation of Genentech Inc. in a €6.25 million (US$8.3 million) funding round.

The financing was jointly led by Seroba BioVentures, also of Dublin, and Inventages Venture Capital, a Bahamas-based fund backed by Nestlé SA, of Vevey, Switzerland. Enterprise Ireland, an Irish government economic development agency, also participated.

Genentech's involvement is welcome validation for Opsona, said CEO Mark Heffernan. South San Francisco-based Genentech contributed through its corporate venture arm, GenenFund, which has a stated policy of investing in programs not yet ready for in-licensing.

"This is their strategy for early stage companies," Heffernan told BioWorld International.

Opsona, which was spun out of Trinity College Dublin last year, is developing therapies for inflammation and autoimmune diseases. It plans to move its first two programs into the clinic over the next two years. Each is based on the work of one of its founders, Kingston Mills, professor of experimental immunology at Trinity, who has discovered a series of microbial proteins that exert a suppressive effect on the immune response.

"Essentially, they act on regulatory T cells," Heffernan said. "They are bacterially derived." The lead molecule, OPN-101, is slated to enter a Phase I trial early next year and "OPN-201 is about six to 12 months behind that." The proteins have both therapeutic and vaccine potential, Heffernan said.

A second strand of Opsona's discovery activity is focused on finding modulators of Toll-like receptor signaling pathways that dampen excessive inflammation. Another founder, Luke O'Neill, professor of biochemistry at Trinity, has made several key discoveries in that area. (See BioWorld International, April 14, 2004.)