Earendil raises $787m as lead TL1A antibody starts phase 2
Earendil Labs has raised an impressive $787 million in financing for its AI-powered drug discovery and development platform, which has already attracted some big-ticket deals with pharma group Sanofi.
Sanofi contributed to the new cash raise, alongside Dimension Capital, DST Global, INCE Capital, Luminous Ventures, Miracle Capital, and the Biotech Development Fund set up by Hillhouse and Pfizer.
The Wilmington, Delaware-based biotech said the new financial muscle will be used to develop its AI capabilities, add to its headcount, and push its pipeline of antibody and biologic-based therapies. Its platform has generated more than 40 candidates to date, led by HXN-1001, a long-acting anti-TL1A antibody that is being prepared for phase 2 testing.
The company also said it is planning "multiple" investigational new drug (IND) submissions in 2026 and 2027, including for additional drug candidates.
TL1A – or tumour necrosis factor-like ligand 1A – has become something of a hot topic in immunology and inflammation R&D, with several companies working on drugs that target it, including MSD with tulisokibart, Teva/Sanofi with duvakitug, and Roche with afimkibart. Tulisokibart, already in phase 3 trials for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, has been tipped to become a $4 billion-a-year blockbuster by some analysts.
Earendil has said it plans to test HXN-1001 in a broad swathe of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's. Its internal pipeline also includes candidates for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), atopic dermatitis, and B-cell diseases.
"AI is at the core of everything we do – not as a research tool, but as a production engine for real therapeutic programmes," said Jian Peng, founder and chief executive of Earendil.
"This financing allows us to operate at a fundamentally different scale, advancing multiple programmes toward the clinic while building an R&D organisation designed for long-term impact," he added.
Sanofi first started working with Earendil last year, initially licensing rights to two bispecific antibodies – integrin α4β7 and TL1A-directed HXN-1002 and antiTL1A and IL-23 drug HXN-1003 – in a deal that included an upfront payment of $125 million and a topline value of $1.85 billion. Both candidates are being positioned as therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory bowel diseases.
Then, in January of this year, Sanofi returned to the deal-making table, paying $160 million upfront with a total potential value of $2.56 billion. The expanded alliance did not identify any new programmes, but will see Sanofi tapping into Earendil's AI platform to find new therapeutic candidates.
