Electra Therapeutics has completed an oversubscribed $183 million Series C financing it said will fund a global pivotal trial of its lead pipeline candidate, a frontline treatment for secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH) that could be the first drug to be authorized for the rare, potentially fatal severe, systemic inflammatory syndrome.
The financing will also support the development of a potential second indication in blood cancers for the lead candidate, called ELA026, as well as advance a second candidate ELA822 into clinical trials for diseases in immunology and inflammation (I&I), Electra said. The company has not disclosed which I&I diseases it will pursue.
“With $183 million, it really positions us very well to move our programs forward,” Kathy Dong, PharmD, MBA, Electra’s president and CEO, told GEN.
ELA026 is a monoclonal antibody designed to address severe inflammatory disorders with aberrant activity among myeloid cells and T lymphocytes, the principal pathological immune cells that induce the cytokine storm and hyperinflammation in sHLH. ELA026 targets signal regulatory protein (SIRP) alpha, beta 1, and gamma (α/β1/γ) receptors on the surface of those cells, with the aim of selectively depleting pathological immune cells.
Headquartered in South San Francisco, CA, Electra has raised over $300 million in total capital—including the Series C—since it was established in 2018 by Star Therapeutics, a company that specializes in spinning out star-themed drug developers, each focused on a family of rare diseases. In 2022 Star spun out Electra, which completed an $84 million Series B round.
“We started, really, with just an idea to target SIRP, and do it in a novel way,” Dong recalled. “It has been, really, an incredible journey within the last seven years to take it from an idea to translating to multiple drug programs that we’re advancing forward, including a lead program that is in pivotal development.”
First patients dosed
Electra has dosed its first patients for the pivotal portion of its two-part Phase Ib-II/III clinical study (NCT05416307). The Phase II/III pivotal part, called SURPASS, is an open-label, single-arm, multicenter, historical control registrational study designed to evaluate the safety, efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of ELA026 in treatment-naïve adults and children with sHLH.
The study’s estimated primary completion date is June 2027.
The earlier Phase Ib part generated clinical validation for Electra’s SIRP-targeting approach. Data published in an abstract presented at last year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in San Diego showed that patients with malignancy-associated HLH who were treated with frontline ELA026 achieved 100% overall survival at two months, compared with approximately 50% reported with available therapies. Malignancy-associated HLH is the most common type of sHLH, shown to have the poorest prognosis.
“Directly targeting the pathogenic SIRP(+) myeloid cells and T lymphocytes represents a novel approach to resolving this severe hyperinflammatory condition,” the Phase Ib researchers concluded.
ELA026 is a monoclonal antibody designed to address severe inflammatory disorders with aberrant activity among myeloid cells and T lymphocytes, the principal pathological immune cells that induce the cytokine storm and hyperinflammation in sHLH.
“Perfect fit”
“For ELA026, the reason that we moved that forward into secondary HLH as a lead indication is because there was a perfect fit from a scientific perspective with the cells that drive pathology in sHLH and the cells that ELA026 targets,” Dong said. “In sHLH, both the myeloid cells and the T cells play a critical role in driving that hyperinflammatory cascade. It’s such a severe response that we felt it was ideal to have an antibody that targeted both sets of cells to really put a blanket over the firestorm that is sHLH.”
ELA026 has received the FDA’s breakthrough therapy designation and the European Medicines Agency’s priority medicines or PRIME designation.
“These mechanisms really put us in a great position to continue this strong collaboration with FDA and other regulatory authorities to move the program forward,” Dong said.
ELA026 is among a handful of treatments ever studied in nine clinical trials that have recruited patients with sHLH or other forms of HLH, according to a spot check of ClinicalTrials.gov.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), for example, is carrying out an observational study (NCT06339177) in which an estimated 200 patients will be clinically evaluated “to learn about sHLH and why some people get it and others do not.”
55%-60% complete response reported
As for HLH-focused treatments, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi®) said Friday it was presenting data at the annual American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Convergence 2025 meeting, held October 24-29 in Chicago, from two studies evaluating its interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) neutralizer emapalumab in pediatric and adult patients with a form of sHLH, macrophage activation syndrome (sHLH/MAS) in Still’s disease—including patients with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and adult onset Still’s disease, or with sHLH/MAS in systemic lupus erythematous.
According to an abstract presented at ACR, data pooled from Sobi’s Phase II Study NI-0501-06 (NCT03311854) and Phase III EMERALD trial (Study NI-0501-14, NCT05001737)—both open-label, single-arm interventional studies—showed that treatment with emapalumab was associated with consistent complete response rates at week eight of approximately 55–60% among patients with different presentations of MAS who had responded inadequately to high-dose glucocorticoids, including patients with recurrent disease.
Emapalumab is an interferon gamma (IFNγ)–blocking antibody that is marketed as Gamifant® (emapalumab-lzsg) after winning FDA approval in June as a treatment for adults and children with HLH/MAS in known or suspected Still’s disease, including systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA), with an inadequate response or intolerance to glucocorticoids, or with recurrent MAS. Gamifant won initial FDA approval in 2018 for adults and newborn and older children with primary HLH with refractory, recurrent or progressive disease or intolerance with conventional HLH therapy.
In addition to ELA026, Electra will use proceeds from its $183 million financing to advance its second SIRP-targeted program ELA822 into clinical trials and through initial data readouts intended to establish the drug’s clinical proof-of-mechanism.
ELA822, which is designed to selectively deplete activated T lymphocytes, shows what Electra has called broad potential across immunology and inflammation (I&I), though the company has not specified which I&I diseases it will seek to treat.
Moving toward IND
“We are right now focused on moving that program towards an IND [investigational new drug application], and into the clinic next year,” Dong said. “What I can say is that, again, we designed this antibody to specifically deplete activated T cells, and we believe that this mechanism can translate to, really efficacy and safety benefits in a wide variety of diseases where T cells are driving pathology.”
“There’s a very long list of T-cell-mediated disease that can be applicable for this molecule, and it could be smaller diseases, as well as very, highly prevalent, large diseases, as well,” she added.
Nextech and EQT Life Sciences led the Series C financing, with participation from three new investors—Sanofi, HBM Healthcare Investments, and Mubadala Capital—as well as existing investors OrbiMed, Redmile Group, New Leaf Venture Partners, Westlake BioPartners, Cormorant Asset Management, Blue Owl Capital, and RA Capital Management.
In conjunction with the financing, Thomas Geninatti, PhD, a principal with Nextech and previously senior director of corporate development at Gilead Sciences, will join Electra’s board of directors while Christoph Broja, a Partner with EQT Life Sciences, will join as board observer.
“We are very impressed by the compelling clinical data the Electra team has generated for ELA026 in sHLH,” Geninatti stated. “These encouraging results provide validation for targeting SIRP as a novel mechanism and position Electra to expand its application across immunology and oncology.”
Looking ahead, Electra also plans to grow its workforce, which now numbers about 35.
“As we progress our programs and expand our pipeline, we’ll take a responsible approach to our growth, and we’ll continue to build out the team as our programs progress,” Dong said. “Right now, we have a full research and development team in place to support our programs, and as you can imagine, with our lead program in pivotal development, that’s where the focus of growth is. We’re hiring, building out the development team, including members to join our clinical team, as well as regulatory, and CMC (chemistry, manufacturing, and controls) members.”