Aeglea BioTherapeutics, an Austin, TX-based biotech company that is developing drugs to essentially starve certain cancers to death, has filed for an initial public offering.
The company will trade under the ticker AGLE on the Nasdaq, according to a document filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In March, Aeglea raised $44 million from investors Lilly Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund, with participation from the University of Texas Horizon Fund.
The company is developing drugs meant to exploit a vulnerability in cancer cells, preventing the cell from a key source of nourishment—the amino acid arginine—from the bloodstream. Cancer cells import arginine from the blood to continue growing after they stop producing the protein on their own, and die when deprived of it, Aeglea says in the filing.
Aeglea anticipates that its lead drug candidate AEB1102 will enter Phase I/II clinical proof-of-concept studies as early as the second half of the year. By possibly using biomarkers in later clinical trials, the company says it hopes to identify cancer patients with tumors that will be sensitive to arginine depletion.
