Funding profile · Rare disease therapeutics

Altay Therapeutics

Seven years old, five federal Phase I grants, one disclosed US$3 million investment from a patient philanthropy, and no Form D on file with the SEC. Almost every dollar that can be traced here came from somebody other than a venture fund.

Data as of September 22, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

What the filings show

Reading the filings

1. The absence is the finding, and it is not proof of nothing.Companies that raise under Section 4(a)(2) rather than Regulation D file no Form D at all, so Altay may well have sold equity that leaves no trace here. What the gap does mean is that no offering size, no investor count, no closing date and no list of related persons exists in public form for any private round this company has done.
2. The traceable capital is grant shaped.Add the five federal awards to the one disclosed investment and you get $4,573,527, of which $1,573,527 is federal and $3,000,000 is philanthropic. Priced venture capital has never been announced, and the two corporate partners, Bristol Myers Squibb and Astellas, gave bench space rather than a disclosed check.
3. Five Phase I awards, zero Phase II.SBIR.gov shows $1,573,527 in Phase I dollars, $0 in Phase II dollars and a conversion rate of not applicable. The average award is $314,705. For a platform company running four targets, that reads as each program funded to the first milestone and no further.
4. The lead program carries the least federal money.Three of the five awards went to STAT3, at $299,068, $399,869 and $299,999. DUX4, the target behind lead compound DX5057, drew one award of $299,591. The Ewing’s sarcoma work drew $275,000 from the NSF. The pipeline order on the website is the reverse of the grant order.
5. The philanthropic investor kept its board seat.The September 2022 release named Eric Bjerkholt as chairman with Eva Chin of SOLVE FSHD and Ali Ozes as directors. Four years later the company website lists Mike Grey as executive chair, Jim Breitmeyer as chief executive, and Ali Ozes, Eric Bjerkholt and Eva Chin on the board. The founder moved from chief executive to chief scientific officer in that period.
6. Announced timing keeps running ahead of the record.The Y Combinator profile still promises phase I trials by mid 2022. The website pipeline chart shows Phase 1/2a across 2025 and 2026. In July 2026 the chief executive said trials would begin later that year. ClinicalTrials.gov shows no registered study for the company or the compound.

Commercial signals

What to watch

• A first Form D. Under Regulation D it is due within 15 days of the first sale, so a filing would be the earliest public sign of a priced round.
• An SBIR Phase II award, which would be the first federal money to follow any of the five Phase I programs.
• An IND and a trial registration for DX5057, promised for 2026.
• Whether SOLVE FSHD follows on, and on what terms, now that its target has an orphan designation.

The Altay Therapeutics story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

• Ochre Bio: Also in Therapeutics. An Oxford company that designs RNA drugs and tests them in whole human donor livers kept alive on machines
• Origami Therapeutics: Also in Therapeutics. A small San Diego company designing oral pills that strip the mutant huntingtin protein out of brain cells while leaving the normal protein alone
• Humane Genomics: Also in Therapeutics. A New York biotech engineering synthetic RNA viruses that are designed to infect and kill only cancer cells
• HepaTx: Also in Therapeutics. A Stanford spinout turning liposuction fat into liver cells, aiming to replace a transplant with an infusion

Sources

1. Public recordSEC EDGAR full text search and company search, no Form D for Altay TherapeuticsSEC · Sep 22, 2026
2. Public recordSBIR.gov company portfolio, five Phase I awards, $1,573,527, zero Phase II dollarsSBIR.gov · accessed Sep 22, 2026
3. Public recordNIH awards 1R43HL162149-01A1, 1R43CA272146-01A1, 1R43AR081195-01 and 1R43HL172594-01A1NIH · 2022 to 2024
4. Public recordHHS TAGGS recipient record, UEI DXGQLLP9NQ59, San Carlos, CAHHS · accessed Sep 22, 2026
5. Public recordClinicalTrials.gov searches for Altay Therapeutics and DX5057, no studies returnedClinicalTrials.gov · Sep 22, 2026
6. PartnerSOLVE FSHD invests US$3 million in Altay Therapeutics, with the board listGlobeNewswire, carried by BioSpace · Sep 21, 2022
7. IndependentTargeting disease-causing transcription factors with Altay TherapeuticsTachyon VC · May 2022
8. IndependentAstellas and MBC BioLabs announce 2023 Future Innovator PrizeAstellas · Dec 12, 2023
9. IndependentBristol Myers Squibb awards Golden Tickets to promising biotechsBristol Myers Squibb · Nov 18, 2021
10. IndependentFSHD Industry Collaborative expands with four biopharma sponsorsPR Newswire · Jul 30, 2026
11. FoundationAltay Therapeutics receives orphan drug designation for DX5057Friends of FSH Research · Dec 3, 2025
12. CompanyAltay Therapeutics website, pipeline, board and news timelineAccessed Sep 22, 2026
13. CompanyAltay Therapeutics Y Combinator company profile, Winter 2020Y Combinator · accessed Sep 22, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NIH, NSF, HHS and FDA related public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; a company that raises under Section 4(a)(2) files none, so an empty EDGAR record is not evidence that no equity was sold. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Altay Therapeutics. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.