With an Eye on the Clinic, Atlas-Backed Kymera Secures $102 Million

Cambridge, Mass.-based Kymera Therapeutics closed a $102 million Series C funding round to continue advancing the company’s lead targeted protein degradation asset for oncology and immunology. Kymera's lead program targets IRAK4, a protein that is known to play a significant role in inflammation that is mediated by toll-like and IL-1 receptors. Kymera aims to advance its IRAK4 degrader program in a variety of autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases, as well as in precision-medicine targeted oncology indications. In February, Atlas Venture-backed Kymera presented preclinical data demonstrating that oral daily dosing of its IRAK4 degraders completely suppressed IRAK4 protein expression in skin and immune cells and inhibited cutaneous inflammation. Kymera's Pegasus targeted protein degradation platform harnesses the body's natural protein recycling machinery to degrade disease-causing proteins, with a focus on un-drugged nodes in validated pathways currently inaccessible with conventional therapeutics.