Durham biotech startup raises $175 million as it starts novel gene therapy trial
Launched from a Duke University lab four years ago, the biotech startup Tune Therapeutics announced a major milestone Sunday — raising $175 million in a Series B funding round to support its first clinical trial.
Tune has developed a novel epigenome editor which it says can turn off or “silence” genes that cause diseases. In December, the company began its initial trial, on hepatitis B patients in New Zealand.
“We don’t change the DNA,” Tune’s chief scientific officer Derek Jantz said in an interview Monday. “But we do change those parts that are being read and interpreted. It’s a kind of control that no one has ever tried before in patients.”
Tune formed in 2021 from research by Duke professor Charles Gersbach, who is a co-founder. The startup raised $40 million in Series A funding its first year, and today has around 80 employees split between offices in Seattle and at the downtown Durham ID building.
Series A and B are the two major funding rounds startups conduct to raise capital, typically following a seed round.
Jantz said his company picked chronic hepatitis B for its first trial because the human body naturally tries to control the virus in a way Tune’s technology mimics. And the company chose New Zealand for its first patients, he said, because it is home to a hospital renowned for running HepB clinical trials.
Tune plans to conduct a second Phase 1 clinical trial in Hong Kong for a similar reason.
Its gene-silencing drug, called Tune-401, is administered through an IV.
The latest $175 million haul will support these clinical trials and help Tune develop additional therapy programs. No matter the trial outcomes, Jantz is confident their results will clarify what the startup pursues next.
Duke Capital Partners, the university’s early-stage venture firm, backed Tune in both investment rounds.
Tune Therapeutics isn’t the only Triangle biotech startup to have recently raised north of $100 million. In August, the Research Triangle Park-based company Pathalys Pharma secured $105 million in Series B funding to develop its kidney disease treatments. And last February, the Chapel Hill asthma treatment firm Areteria Therapeutics raised an additional $75 million to its previous $350 million Series A round.
Along with California and Massachusetts, North Carolina is one of only three states to have seen multiple $100 million biotech financing rounds in the past 12 months, said Mike Carnes, vice president of emerging company development at the nonprofit North Carolina Biotechnology.
“I still think there’s a huge (local) opportunity for gene therapy,” he said. “I think Tune’s funding helps verify that opportunity as well as North Carolina’s ability to really deliver companies that are well suited for this industry.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2025 at 6:08 PM.
