Kineta, a biotechnology company focused on the development of immune-modulating drugs for critical diseases, and RLB Holdings, an investment fund founded by Ray and Lydia Bartoszek, have formed a joint venture, Kineta RLB, which will commercialize promising, high-value compounds in selective disease areas with unmet medical needs.

“The vision of Kineta RLB is to progress the clinical development in high-need areas with the hope of improving the access to important new medical treatments in areas where patients do not have appropriate treatment options,” said Lydia Bartoszek, managing partner and co-founder of RLB Holdings.

“This collaboration combines the resources of RLB Holdings with Kineta’s translational and clinical development expertise to develop novel drug candidates that address pressing medical needs,” said Charles Magness, president and CEO of Kineta.

Craig W. Philips, president of Kineta RLB, said, “This approach will allow us to broaden the lifecycle management of some of the key assets in the Kineta portfolio and increase the value of our development programs to the benefit of both patients and investors. Our initial focus will be autoimmune diseases, an area where there have been only incremental advances despite the enormous need of tens of thousands of children and adults in the U.S. and abroad.”