Venture Funding Deals: From ADC To Y-mAbs, Capital Flows For New Platforms, Novel Approaches

October was an active fundraising month for both start-up biopharma companies and more established privately held firms, ranging from $3m for Appili's drug for anaerobic infections to $270m for Harmony's rare disease programs.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Venture Funding Deals column provides a comprehensive monthly review of emerging biopharmaceutical companies that have received venture funding. This month’s column covers deals announced in September and October.

ADC Therapeutics Closes $200m Fourth Round

ADC Therapeutics SARL, which is developing antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) incorporating highly potent pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD)-based warheads, raised $200m through its fourth venture capital round from new and returning backers, including AstraZeneca PLC, Auven Therapeutics, Redmile and the Wild Family Office.

Proceeds will go towards development of lymphoma and leukemia candidates ADCT301 and ADCT402 (slated for registrational trials in 2018); ADCT502 (Phase I for breast, gastric, esophageal, bladder and lung cancers with HER2 expression); and an investigational new drug (IND) filing for ADCT602 and ADCT601 (lymphoma/leukemia and metastatic disease, respectively).

Antabio Completes €7.3m Series A Round

Antabio SAS, a developer of antibiotic-resistant combination therapies for nosocomial infections, raised €7.3m ($8.6m) through a Series A round from iXO Private Equity, IRDI SORIDEC Gestion, Galia Gestion and the company’s previous investors, including Christophe Ricard, former president of OM Pharma.

Antabio will use the proceeds to complete development through Phase I of its bacterial metallo beta-lactamases inhibitor (MBLI), which will be combined with a carbapenem antibiotic to treat drug-resistant infections. The company recently received an $8.9m grant from antibacterial therapeutics incubator CARB-X to advance its other pipeline program, Pseudomonas elastase inhibitors (PEi), for infections in cystic fibrosis patients. It's anticipated one of Antabio's programs (funded mostly so far with €8.7m in 2013 and 2015 Wellcome Trust grants) will begin clinical trials in 2019, with potential fast-track marketing approval expected by 2021. Including an $800k seed round in 2011, the company has raised $9.4m in VC funding to date.

Appili Closes $3m Financing

Anti-infectives developer Appili Therapeutics Inc. raised $3.06m in what appears to be its Series B round from new and returning shareholders, including Innovacorp. The company will use the proceeds for R&D and to move its lead candidate ATI1501 for anaerobic infections into clinical trials.

Azura Ophthalmics Closes $16m Series B Round

Azura Ophthalmics Ltd. raised $16m in its Series B financing led by OrbiMed, TPG Biotech and Brandon Capital, all of which take board seats and were joined by returning shareholder Ganot Capital.

The company will use the proceeds for ongoing development of its candidate for treating meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), which is the leading cause of dry eye disease. The compound has demonstrated efficacy in a proof-of-concept trial and is ready to enter Phase IIa. MGD results when the glands in the upper and lower eyelids don't produce a lipid layer, causing tears to evaporate too quickly and drying out the ocular surface. Azura's leadership team includes experts in the development and commercialization of dry eye therapies and who have worked at and/or founded ophthalmology companies.

BridgeBio Pharma Raises $135m In Series C Round

In what multiple industry sources are calling a Series C round, genetic disease-focused BridgeBio Pharma raised $135m from new investors Viking Global (lead), AIG, Aisling Capital, Cormorant Capital and Janus Funds. Returning backers KKR (co-lead) and Perceptive Advisors also participated.

BridgeBio was founded in 2015 as a self-proclaimed “drug product engine,” with the goal of taking on candidates that have been otherwise overlooked by biopharma companies or academia, and creating subsidiary companies to develop the projects into genetically targeted therapeutics. So far, the firm has 10 candidates in its coffers in therapy areas including cardiology, dermatology, oncology, neurology and endocrine diseases.

BridgeBio launched PellePharm to focus on developing the topical hedgehog inhibitor patidegib for basal cell carcinoma and Gorlin syndrome. Another subsidiary, Eidos, is working on a treatment for TTR amyloidosis. Money raised in the current round will help the company continue its research efforts and support creation of additional drug-development divisions.

Cullinan Oncology Brings In $150m Through Series A Round

Cullinan Oncology LLC raised $150m through a Series A round co-led by UBS Oncology Impact Fund (managed by MPM Capital) and F2 Ventures.

Cullinan’s business stems from a portfolio model applied to drug development, based on the risks and returns of each asset in the pipeline related to the overall risk and return assessment of the whole pipeline. The company’s goal is to study eight to 10 early-stage cancer candidates that have been discarded by other firms, and sell off rights to those that reveal positive clinical results following completion of Phase Ib or Phase II.

Its pipeline currently holds three projects, one of which came from MPM and two others that stemmed from in-house research. IND-stage for all three is expected within the next two years. (Also see "Cullinan To Search For Oncology’s Diamonds In The Rough" - Scrip, 3 Oct, 2017.)

Disarm Therapeutics Brings In $30m Through Series A Round

Disarm Therapeutics raised $30m in a Series A financing led by seed investor Atlas Venture, which was joined by Lightstone Ventures and AbbVie Ventures.

The 2016 start-up was incubated by Atlas with science pioneered in the lab of Washington University researchers and company co-founders Jeffrey Milbrandt and Aaron DiAntonio. Axons, which carry transmissions between neurons, are susceptible to destruction (triggered by inflammation or injury) that leads to the progression of central and peripheral nervous system and ocular disorders. Disarm founders identified the SARM1 protein as the major cause of axonal degeneration and additionally concluded SARM1's enzymatic activity can be targeted by therapeutics.

Disarm has an exclusive license from Washington U to the SARM1 discoveries, including a translational biomarker product engine, with which it plans to discover and develop drugs that inhibit the SARM1 protein and thus directly prevent the loss of axons in chronic and acute diseases, including multiple sclerosis; degenerative conditions, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's, Parkinson's; glaucoma; and diabetic- and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathies.

Enlivex Closes $8m Series B Round

Enlivex Therapeutics Ltd. raised $8m through its Series B round from Korea Investment Partners ($6m) and Hadasit Bio-Holdings ($2m). Korea Investment Partners joined the company’s board.

Formed in 2005, Enlivex is developing autologous and allogenic immunotherapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases caused by overexpression of cytokines. Lead candidate Allocetra is entering Phase III for the prevention of graft versus host disease (GvHD) post-bone marrow transplantation. The project also is entering Phase II for sepsis. Enlivex's other development programs, for which it is seeking partners, include a preclinical-stage treatment for severe Cytokine Release Syndrome (sCRS), a side effect of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy.

Gemini Therapeutics Raises $42.5m In Series A Financing

Gemini Therapeutics Inc. raised $42.5m in its Series A financing round co-led by Atlas Venture, Lightstone Ventures and OrbiMed, the latter of which also invested in the company's 2016 seed round.

The company's initial focus is genetically defined dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other associated rare genetic diseases. (Also see "Finance Watch: NDA-Ready Impact Gets Commitment For Another $90m" - Scrip, 30 Oct, 2017.) Gemini uses a multimodal approach which assesses the functional implications of patients' underlying mutations and matches each molecular abnormality with an appropriate therapeutic candidate (a recombinant protein, monoclonal antibody or gene therapy).

Immatics Brings In $58m Through Series E

Immatics Biotechnologies GMBH raised $58m in its Series E round from returning investors dievini Hopp Biotech holding, Wellington Partners, AT Impf GMB, and others, as well as new backers, including January 2017 alliance partner Amgen Inc. Proceeds will fund pipeline development of lead preclinical candidate IMA101 (endogenous T-cell therapy) and IMA201 (autologous TCR treatment); work on additional TCR projects; and discovery and validation of cancer immunotherapy targets using the company's XPRESIDENT discovery engine. Since its 2000 inception, Immatics has now raised over $230m.

Impact Biomedicines Closes $22.5m Series A Round

Oncology start-up Impact Biomedicines raised $22.5m from Medicxi through its Series A round.

Impact was formed last year around its sole candidate fedratinib, which the company licensed exclusively from Sanofi. The big pharma had been developing the compound in Phase III trials for myelofibrosis prior to scrapping it once the FDA placed a clinical hold on all studies in 2013 based on reports of Wernicke’s encephalopathy in some trial subjects.

Led by CEO John Hood, who developed fedratinib while at TargeGen Inc., which Sanofi acquired to get its hands on the compound in 2010, Impact has been working toward getting the FDA hold lifted following requests from physicians on behalf of patients who were responding favorably to the candidate before trials were halted – and who ended up relapsing without access to fedratinib. Concurrent with the Series A announcement, Impact revealed that the hold has been lifted and trials will now continue. (Also see "What Was On Hold Is New Again As Impact Raises $22.5m For Fedratinib" - Scrip, 13 Oct, 2017.)

The company also entered into a $90m structured financing agreement with Oberland Capital to help fund development of lead/sole candidate fedratinib, a JAK2 inhibitor entering Phase III trials for myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera. Impact could get two milestone-based payments of $20m each in exchange for future fedratinib royalties. If the candidate is approved in the US, the company has the option to draw down an additional $35m to $50m in notes from Oberland. (Also see "Finance Watch: NDA-Ready Impact Gets Commitment For Another $90m" - Scrip, 30 Oct, 2017.)

InflaRx Closes $30m Series D Round

InflaRx Inc. raised $30m in its Series D venture financing round co-led by Bain Capital Life Sciences, Cormorant Asset Management and RA Capital Management. The company also completed a $25m secondary share purchase.

InflaRx will use the proceeds to advance its lead candidate IFX1 – a first-in-class monoclonal anti-complement factor C5a antibody in Phase IIb for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases – and to fund preclinical development of other molecules. InflaRx, which has since registered to launch an initial public offering, previously raised €31m in July 2016 in its Series C round.

Series A Round Brings $10m To Intezyne

Cancer drug developer Intezyne Technologies Inc. raised $10m through a Series A round supported by existing investor Gaston Capital Healthcare Fund, which also took a seat on the company’s board of directors.

Intezyne was formed in 2004 and has two oncology candidates in clinical trials. IT139, a cancer resistance pathway inhibitor, is in Phase II trials for pancreatic, gastric and BRAF-mutated cancers (including BRAF-mutated melanoma, thyroid and lung cancer). IT141, a topoisomerase I (TOPI) inhibitor, is entering Phase II for colorectal and breast cancers. Proceeds from the Series A and a planned $30m Series B will support multiple Phase II studies; the company also has its sights on R&D collaborations and an IPO. (Also see "Finance Watch: J&J Notes JLabs Incubators' Success Stories To Date" - Scrip, 13 Oct, 2017.)

KSQ Emerges From Stealth Mode With $76m

KSQ Therapeutics emerged from stealth mode and revealed that it has raised $76m through its Series A and B rounds. Flagship Pioneering led the rounds and was joined by co-founding investor Polaris Partners as well as Arch Venture Partners and Alexandria Equities.

KSQ was established in 2015 by Flagship and Polaris together with David Sabatini (Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology), William Hahn (Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Jonathan Weissman (University of California, San Francisco), and Tim Wang (MIT). The company’s flagship CRISPRomics drug-development platform utilizes CRISPR-based technology to examine the function that each human gene has in multiple diseases, with a focus on discovering targets in oncology and immunology. KSQ’s pipeline notes four projects in preclinical studies, including one program in immuno-oncology.

Rare Disease Start-up Harmony Raises $270m

Concurrent with procuring an exclusive US license to Bioprojet's narcolepsy candidate pitolisant, Harmony Biosciences LLC raised $270m in equity financing (assumed to be its Series A round) from 29 investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity Management & Research, HBM Healthcare Investments, Vivo Capital, venBio Partners, Novo Holdings and Nan Fung Life Sciences.

Founded earlier this year, Harmony will use the proceeds to pursue the development of treatments for sleep disorders and other CNS-focused rare conditions. Right now, the only candidate in its pipeline is the in-licensed Phase III selective histamine H3-receptor antagonist/inverse agonist pitolisant, for which it expects to file a new drug application (NDA) in the first half of 2018. (Also see "Harmony Biosciences Raises $270m; Acquires US Rights To Narcolepsy Drug " - Scrip, 6 Oct, 2017.)

Pitolisant has orphan status in the US and is already sold in the EU as Wakix. Harmony is a Paragon Biosciences company; Paragon incubates and invests in biotech companies to discover, develop and bring to market drugs for rare and orphan conditions, with each company specializing in a specific therapeutic area. In addition to Harmony, Paragon's companies include Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals LLC (dermatology and ENT), Precision BP (oncology) and Decade (Alzheimer's disease).

Recursion Pharmaceuticals Raises $60m In Series B Financing

The drug discovery firmRecursion Pharmaceuticals LLC raised $60m in its Series B financing round led by Data Collective (also adds a board seat), with participation from all prior institutional investors, such as Series A lead Lux Capital, Obvious Ventures, Advantage Capital, Felicis, Epic and AME. New investors include Mubadala, Menlo Ventures, CRV, Two Sigma and High-Value Angel Investors.

Recursion intends to use the proceeds for drug repurposing, including partnerships with multiple major pharmaceutical companies, and to build its own internal pipeline of new drugs and expand into new therapeutic areas and discovery partnerships. The company has now raised over $80m to date since inception including a $15m Series A round in late 2016.

Recursion supplements traditional drug discovery approaches, most prominently phenotypic screening, with artificial intelligence. Initially focused on rare genetic diseases, the company now has over 30 discovery programs across more than 24 diseases with its lead program expected to enter the clinic in 2018.

Ribometrix Raises $7.5m In Seed Round

Ribometrix Inc., which is developing small-molecule modulators of RNA, raised $7.5m in a seed funding round from co-lead investors SV Health Investors and Hatteras Venture Partners, each of which took a board seat.

The Dementia Discovery Fund, MP Healthcare Venture Management, Alexandria Venture Investments and AbbVie Ventures, which joined the board, also participated in the financing. Ribometrix was founded by Kevin Weeks, a professor of chemistry at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Katherine Warner.

The company focuses on under-exploited RNA targets for a broad range of diseases. Ribometrix's proprietary platform uses SHAPE-MaP and RING-MaP to elucidate the 3D shape of RNA and to screen for small-molecule modulators of RNA biology. The benefits over current 2D approaches include selectivity, oral bioavailability, tissue distribution and central nervous system penetration.

Navire Pharma Launched With $30m Series A From Parent BridgeBio

Small-molecule cancer therapy developer Navire Pharma launched with a $30m Series A investment from parent BridgeBio Pharma, plus intellectual property and a drug development team from MD Anderson Cancer Center.

BridgeBio also is providing the new company with senior business managers to oversee the development of inhibitors of the tyrosine-protein phosphatase SHP2 for genetically driven and treatment-resistant cancers. SHP2 is encoded by the PTPN1 gene and links growth factor signaling with the downstream RAS/ERK/MAPK pathway to regulate cell growth. Gene mutations and over-activity of the pathway contribute to the development of many different types of cancer, leading MD Anderson and Navire to focus on binding SHP2 and stopping it from promoting tumor growth.

Series A Brings In £13m For VirionHealth

Recently formed VirionHealth Ltd. raised £13m ($17m) in its Series A financing through Abingworth, which adds a board member.

Based on research performed at the [University of Warwick], the start-up is initially working on therapies for influenza and respiratory viral infections. VirionHealth seeks to create a broad-spectrum antiviral therapy that can fight a range of viruses with a single agent with less susceptibility to resistance due to viral out-competition abilities and an innate immune system stimulation. The company will use the Series A proceeds to move candidates into clinical trials.

Y-mAbs Gets $50m In Series B Round

Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc. raised $50m through its Series B round led by HBM Healthcare Investments and including existing shareholders.

The company is developing bispecific antibodies targeting GD2 and B7-H3, which it exclusively in-licensed from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2015. Series B proceeds will support late-stage development of lead candidates burtomab, in Phase III for leptomeningeal metastases, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and malignant ascites, and naxitamab, in Phase II for neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma. Including the current financing, Y-mAbs has raised $87m since its 2014 inception.

From the Editors of Start-Up