ACELYRIN Launches with Funding from Westlake Village BioPartners

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ACELYRIN, INC., a biopharma company focused on providing patients life-changing new treatment options by identifying, acquiring, and accelerating development and commercialization of promising drug candidates, today announced its launch backed by Series A financing from Westlake Village BioPartners.

With an initial focus on immunology, ACELYRIN is targeting both early stage innovation as well as clinical-stage programs where it can leverage its expertise to rapidly advance medicines to patients.

ACELYRIN's founders, CEO Shao-Lee Lin, MD, PhD, and President and COO Bob Carey, have proven track records of creating value for patients and investors, having played leading roles in identifying, acquiring, and developing some of the most successful medicines in biopharma history with aggregate annual projected sales in excess of $30 billion. These include Skyrizi®, Rinvoq®, Tepezza®, Mavyret®, Krystexxa®, Humira®, and Enbrel®, each well beyond or soon to be in excess of $1 billion in annual sales.

"We are building a long-term, sustainable biopharma company with a pipeline that has the potential to be truly meaningful to patients with serious diseases," said Dr. Lin. "We are focused on patients first, and ensuring promising new medicines get to patients sooner."

"To achieve this, we are committed to structuring acquisitions around our partners' needs to create win-wins," Dr. Lin added. "For our pharma colleagues, this may be through efficient and ongoing collaborations. For our colleagues in academia and early stage companies, we offer the opportunity to enhance their capabilities with our development experience and access to capital."

"ACELYRIN is conducting a licensing and acquisition search process that is directed within immunology and opportunistic in other areas," said Mr. Carey. "ACELYRIN understands the science, and we have deep insight and experience in development and commercialization that helps us identify winning programs earlier in the discovery and development process."

"What sets ACELYRIN's leaders apart is their ability to bring together experienced, world-class biopharma executives and venture capitalists with broad, complementary skillsets and networks," said Westlake's co-founding managing director and ACELYRIN Board member, Sean Harper, MD.

"ACELYRIN's founders have proven track records of building strong teams, multibillion-dollar therapeutics, and public companies that significantly improve the lives of patients suffering from serious diseases," he added.

"ACELYRIN is poised for rapid growth with financing and infrastructure ready to be activated upon a program acquisition," said Beth Seidenberg, MD, co-founding managing director of Westlake Village BioPartners and an ACELYRIN Board member. "With Shao-Lee and Bob at the helm, I am confident ACELYRIN will achieve its goal of building a fully integrated biopharma company with broad research, development, and commercialization capabilities."

ACELYRIN is headquartered in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, with additional operations in the San Francisco Bay Area. It intends to play an integral role in developing the Los Angeles Area Biotech Hub.

About ACELYRIN

ACELYRIN, INC. is a biopharma company focused on providing patients life-changing new treatment options by identifying, acquiring, and accelerating development and commercialization of promising drug candidates and leveraging its expertise to rapidly advance these medicines to patients. For more information, please visit www.acelyrin.com

About Westlake Village BioPartners  

Westlake Village BioPartners is a Los Angeles area-based venture capital firm focused on incubating and building life sciences companies with entrepreneurs who have the potential to bring transformative therapies to patients. Westlake manages more early stage venture capital solely from the greater Los Angeles area than any other firm. The Westlake model is built on the founding team's unique experience in successfully identifying and developing breakthrough therapies and building organizations, based on their extensive R&D experience. For more information, please visit www.westlakebio.com.

SOURCE ACELYRIN