aibioShattuck Labs closes private placement of up to $103 million led by OrbiMed
Shattuck says the placement could fund operations into 2029 if all warrants are exercised. Two new directors join the board, including OrbiMed's Mona Ashiya, and four directors leave.
Key facts
- Companies
- Shattuck Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: STTK), Disc Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ: IRON)
- News type
- Financings
- Primary source
- Shattuck Labs, Inc. 8-K (2025-08-26)
The financing
Shattuck Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: STTK) said on August 26, 2025 that it had closed a private placement of up to approximately $103 million led by OrbiMed. A private placement sells securities directly to selected investors instead of through a public offering. The company said the proceeds, assuming full exercise of common stock warrants, are expected to fund operations into 2029 and to advance its lead drug candidate, SL-325.
The announcement is in Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K. The wording "up to" makes $103 million a ceiling rather than cash in hand, and the runway claim depends on warrants being exercised. The release does not say how many shares or warrants were sold, the price per share, or the warrant exercise price, so the dilution cannot be measured from it. It also does not name a placement agent, a bank or any financial advisor, and it names no counsel to the company or to the investors.
The board changes
Two directors joined the board at the closing. Daniel Baker, M.D., is described in the release as an industry expert and a former Johnson & Johnson immunology research executive who contributed to Remicade, Simponi and Stelara. Mona Ashiya, Ph.D., is a member at OrbiMed Advisors LLC, the investment firm that led the placement. Baker currently serves as interim Chief Development Officer at Cue Biopharma, and Ashiya sits on the board of Disc Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: IRON). The release does not describe Baker as an OrbiMed representative.
Four directors stepped down at the same time: Tyler Brous, Carrie Brownstein, M.D., Michael Lee and Kate Sasser, Ph.D. The release thanks them for their long support and refers only to a "transition," without giving reasons for their departure.
The drug and its evidence
SL-325 is an antibody that blocks a receptor called DR3, which is also the target of TL1A. The annual report on Form 10-K, filed in March 2025, says the company believes SL-325 could outperform TL1A-blocking antibodies in inflammatory bowel disease because it blocked TL1A binding to DR3 better than sequence equivalents of those antibodies in head-to-head preclinical studies. The company presents those comparisons as its own belief, not as clinical results.
The release says SL-325 is entering a Phase 1 trial this quarter. The 10-K set a target of completing Phase 1 enrollment in the second quarter of 2026. A Phase 1 study in healthy volunteers tests safety, tolerability and dosing. So the placement funds a program that has not yet produced human efficacy data, with the planned Phase 2 trials still ahead.
The 10-K also argues that the safety record of TL1A-blocking antibodies made by other companies lowers the safety risk for DR3 blockade. That is an inference from other programs, not data on SL-325. It also cites a non-human primate toxicology study with no toxicity, which the company says points to a potentially favorable clinical safety profile. Animal data of this kind does not establish how the drug will behave in people.
What the financing leaves open
The release gives the expected runway but not the cash position at closing, so it is not possible to check how the $103 million figure relates to the company's current cash. The release does not give the size of the placement in shares, the investor list beyond OrbiMed, or the terms of the warrants.
The release also says the financing, the clearance of the SL-325 IND and the board changes "mark an important repositioning of Shattuck as an immunology and inflammation focused organization," in the words of CEO Taylor Schreiber. That is a change of focus the company chose. The release does not compare it with the company's earlier pipeline plans.
What comes next
The company has set out the start of the SL-325 Phase 1 trial this quarter, the completion of Phase 1 enrollment targeted for the second quarter of 2026, and then multiple Phase 2 trials. The company ties the 2029 runway to full exercise of the warrants.