Xenotransplantation pioneer eGenesis has closed a $191 million Series D financing led by Lux Capital. The proceeds will go toward advancing eGenesis’s lead candidate for kidney transplant.
The company has already garnered headlines for its pig organ transplants. In March 2024, eGenesis announced the world’s first successful porcine kidney transplant in a living patient. The transplant was FDA authorized under the Expanded Access pathway and performed by a surgical team at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
eGenesis’ latest financing was led by Lux Capital, with participation from existing investors ARCH Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Farallon Capital Management, Alta Partners, Fresenius Medical Care Ventures, and Leaps by Bayer as well as new investors DaVita, Eisai Innovation, NATCO Pharmaceuticals, and Parkwood Corporation.
“This financing demonstrates the confidence that investors have in cross-species transplantation as a potential solution to the global organ crisis and in eGenesis as the leader in this sector,” said Mike Curtis, president and CEO, eGenesis. “We are thrilled to work with Lux Capital and this world-class syndicate to advance our lead program to formal clinical trials. With this support, we are one step closer to bringing a solution to help patients suffering from organ failure.”
More than 800,000 people in the U.S., and millions globally, suffer from end-stage renal disease, or kidney failure, a life-threatening condition for which transplantation is considered the gold standard treatment option to improve quality of life and outcomes. Yet the demand for organs far outpaces supply, with more than 90,000 individuals on the kidney waitlist and only approximately 25,000 kidney transplants performed each year.
Human compatible donor organs from other species, particularly pigs so far, offer a potential alternative to alleviate the shortage of transplantable organs and curtail waitlist mortality.
“Decades of progress in cross-species transplantation, accelerated by the evolution of modern genome editing tools and next-generation sequencing, have enabled eGenesis to advance genetically engineered organs to the clinical setting,” said Peter Hébert, co-founder and managing partner, Lux Capital. “What was once science fiction is now science fact. We are thrilled to support eGenesis in advancing this pivotal modality to address one of the most intractable challenges facing medicine today—the global organ shortage crisis.”
The eGenesis donor kidney (EGEN-2784) is the company’s lead candidate for kidney transplant and carries three classes of edits: (1) knock out of three genes involved in the synthesis of glycan antigens implicated in hyper-acute rejection, (2) insertion of seven human transgenes involved in the regulation of pathways that modulate rejection: inflammation, innate immunity, coagulation, and complement, and (3) inactivation of the endogenous retroviruses in the porcine genome.
The company’s Genome Engineering and Production (EGEN) Platform addresses cross-species molecular incompatibilities and viral risk via genetic engineering. eGenesis is advancing development programs for kidney transplant, acute liver failure, and heart transplant.
