Biotech startup Mercury Bio raises $2 million to develop next-generation drug delivery platform

Mercury Bio, a Santa Fe, NM-based biotech startup developing targeted molecular drug delivery technology, has closed $2 million in seed funding to expand its next-generation biomolecular drug delivery platform. The seed funding, which was initiated in January of the current year, quickly garnered interest from investors across the country, ranging from corporations to individual backers.

In conjunction with the recent seed funding round, Mercury Bio also announced it has appointed John Tomes as its Finance Director as part of the company’s effort to accelerate growth.

Tomes brings over 25 years of private equity and early-stage investment experience across four funds managing in excess of $450M of capital. Tomes most recently served as a Senior Partner with Hawthorn Equity Partners, where he was responsible for sourcing and managing investments in early-stage life sciences companies. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director at GE Capital, where he led a team responsible for making leveraged lending and equity investments in healthcare and life sciences companies.

Mercury Bio’s new Finance Director, John Tomes (top left), meeting with members of the lab team at the company’s Santa Fe, NM facility. SOURCE: Mercury Bio Inc.

Tomes has also served on the boards of more than 15 companies and has been involved in multiple company sale events, IPOs, restructurings, and mergers. He holds a BA in Biology from Kenyon College and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

“John Tomes joins us at a time when we are scaling to meet current and anticipated technology development agreements for our delivery system with pharma and biotech companies,” said Bruce McCormick, CEO of Mercury Bio. “He will be a valuable asset to our team as we amplify awareness of the many potential applications of chimeric yEV technology in the biopharma industry.”

What lies ahead in the company’s trajectory following this early funding round? Mercury Bio has also expressed its intent to swiftly embark on preparations for a Series A investment round, propelled by the upsurge in its level of activity. Prior to January 2023, the company had secured funding through pre-seed investments primarily obtained from individuals and organizations rooted in New Mexico.

“Mercury Bio really transitioned out of a period of discreet technological development when we unveiled our groundbreaking technology at the recent 3rd-Annual mRNA Therapeutics conference in Boston,” says current CEO, Bruce McCormick. “That presentation by our CSO [Richard Sayre Ph. D.], showed just what our yEV technology is capable of, and based on the terrific feedback gained at that conference, we’re now looking at how to strategically structure growth over the next three years.”