Westlake Village Biopartners’ backed Acelyrin makes first acquisition
Acelyrin, a Los Angeles-based biotechnology company, announced its first acquisition of ValenzaBio, a privately held company developing therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, in an all-stock transaction, the company said Jan. 5.
With the acquisition, Acelyrin gains multiple clinical and pre-clinical development programs to its robust immunology pipeline, which is led by izokibep, a small therapeutic protein inhibitor of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) designed to overcome the limitations of monoclonal antibodies.
Acelyrin was founded in 2021 and was primarily funded by Westlake Village Biopartners. The fund, which was founded by Sean Harper and Beth Seidenberg, launched two funds in 2020 meant to spur the advancement of biotechnology companies.
Their goal was also to bring most of those newly-funded companies to the Conejo Valley.
In conjunction with the acquisition of ValenzaBio, John Doux will join Acelyrin’s Board of Directors.
“We are pleased to execute this transformative acquisition as we continue building Acelyrin into a leading immunology company, and we will continue to look for additional ‘diamond in the rough’ opportunities as we pursue the acquisition, development and delivery of transformative medicines for patients,” Shao-Lee Lin, founder and CEO of Acelyrin said in a press release.
