▎Edited by the WuXi AppTec content team
According to the statistics from the content department of WuXi AppTec, as of March 28, 2024, the global biopharmaceutical field completed nearly 200 financing activities in March this year. Among them,Twenty-one financings exceeded the threshold of 50 million US dollars, and the total amount of disclosed financing has surpassed 4.5 billion US dollars.Notably, among all large-scale financing cases,A total of 12 companies raised more than 100 million US dollars. These companies not only cover traditional small-molecule drug research and development but also include various innovative new molecular therapy fields. In the following sections, we will provide a detailed introduction to five companies dedicated to developing new molecular therapies based on publicly available information, as well as a biotech company that has just completed its IPO. We will explore their innovative therapies and the potential patient benefits these treatments may bring in the future.
▲Press and hold to scan the QR code above, apply for the "Summary of Global Financing Events Over 50 Million USD in March 2024"Asgard Therapeutics: Cancer Immunotherapy Development Company
On March 14, Asgard Therapeutics announced the completion of a €30 million (approximately $32 million) Series A financing round.These funds will be used to support its lead program AT-108 to reach the status of supporting an IND submission by 2026, expand and strengthen its R&D team, and advance new cell reprogramming methods and delivery platforms to enhance the product pipeline.。This round of financing was co-led by RV Invest and Johnson & Johnson Innovation (JJDC), with participation from existing investors Novo Holdings, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, and Industrifonden.Asgard Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to directly reprogramming cells in vivo for cancer immunotherapy. The company leverages its proprietary reprogramming technology to develop gene therapy products aimed at initiating highly efficient personalized immune responses.The main project of the company, AT-108, is a potential "first-in-class," off-the-shelf gene therapy. AT-108 can reprogram cancer cells in the patient's body into conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1s)., a rare subset of immune cells that is crucial for an effective anti-tumor immune response.These induced cDC1s present individual-specific cancer antigens to the immune system, triggering personalized and systemic anti-cancer immune responses.AT-108 is a replication-deficient adenovirus vector therapy that delivers three transcription factors to tumor cells, rewriting their gene expression profiles and reprogramming them into immunogenic cDC1 cells.
▲Mechanism of Action of AT-108 (Image Source: Asgard Therapeutics Official Website)Based on multiple articles published inScience ImmunologyPaper onAT-108 achieved preclinical proof of concept in patient-derived in vitro models as well as in rodent in vivo models. Even as a monotherapy, it elicited a strong antitumor immune response and abscopal effect.。Dr. Cristiana Pires is one of the co-founders of Asgard Therapeutics and has served as the company's CEO since its inception. During her postdoctoral research in Dr. Filipe Pereira’s lab, she focused on dendritic cell reprogramming strategies to modulate immune responses, which ultimately led to the establishment of Asgard Therapeutics. As CEO, she has already secured over 1.5 million euros in funding for the company. By combining her pharmacological and scientific background with entrepreneurial experience, Dr. Pires is committed to bringing AT-108 to patients.Tubulis: Antibody-Drug Conjugate Development CompanyOn March 14, Tubulis announced the successful completion of its $138.8 million Series B2 financing.The proceeds from this financing will be mainly used to support the clinical development of Tubulis' next-generation ADC and help achieve the clinical proof-of-concept for the lead candidate drugs TUB-040 and TUB-030. In addition,The funds will also be used to expand Tubulis's technology platform to unlock innovative payloads for the development of multifunctional and customizable ADCs.The round was co-led by EQT Life Sciences and Nextech Invest, with new investors Frazier Life Sciences and Deep Track Capital also participating. All existing investors include Andera Partners, BioMedPartners, Fund+, Bayern Kapital, Evotec, coparion, Seventure Partners, OCCIDENT, and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF).Tubulis was founded with the goal of addressing the key bottlenecks in the field by innovating across all aspects of ADC development to maximize the overall performance of ADCs. The company’s platform enables the use of payload classes beyond traditional payloads and expands conjugation options between antibodies and payloads through novel chemical moieties, enabling stable high drug-to-antibody ratios.Its main candidate drugTUB-040 targets the tumor antigen Napi2b, a well-characterized target in ovarian and lung cancer. Another drug, TUB-030, targets 5T4, an antigen frequently overexpressed in solid tumors.The preclinical proof-of-concept results for these two candidate drugs will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in April this year. The company expects to begin its first Phase 1/2a clinical trial in 2024, including dose escalation and dose optimization cohorts.▲Tubulis' proprietary R&D pipeline (Source: Tubulis official website)The CEO of Tubulis is Dr. Dominik Schumacher. In 2019, he was named one of the Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review. Dr. Schumacher is also a life science investor, actively investing in young European biotechnology companies. Before co-founding Tubulis in 2018, he worked at the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) in Germany and served as a group leader at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich.Clasp Therapeutics: Tumor Immunotherapy Research and Development CompanyOn March 20, Clasp Therapeutics announced its emergence from stealth mode and the completion of a $150 million Series A financing round. This round was led by Catalio Capital Management, Third Rock Ventures, and Novo Holdings, with participation from Vivo Capital, Cure Ventures, Blackbird BioVentures, Pictet Alternative Advisors, Bright Edge of the American Cancer Society, and Alexandria Venture Investments.Clasp focuses on developing modular T-cell engagers (TCEs) tailored to each patient's immune system. These TCEs are off-the-shelf, bispecific antibody-like molecules designed to simultaneously target the CD3 protein on the surface of T cells and tumor-specific mutant peptides on the surface of cancer cells, thereby promoting T-cell attacks on cancer cells.These tumor-specific mutant peptides are presented by HLA with patient immune characteristics.ClaspTheTCEFocus on common tumor-specific driver mutations, including many mutations that do not respond to standard immunotherapy.By binding T cells and tumor cells in a highly specific manner, this therapy ensures immune activation against the tumor itself while avoiding damage to normal tissues that do not contain tumor-specific mutant peptides.▲Clasp Modular TCE Schematic Diagram (Image Source: Clasp Therapeutics)Official Website)Dr. Robert Ross is the CEO of Clasp. Before joining Clasp in November 2023, he served as the CEO and a board member of Surface Oncology, which was later acquired by Coherus Biosciences. Dr. Ross also served as the head of oncology at bluebird bio. Earlier in his career, Dr. Ross worked at Genentech and Infinity Pharmaceuticals.Capstan Therapeutics: A CAR-T Cell Therapy Development CompanyOn March 20, Capstan Therapeutics announced the completion of a $175 million oversubscribed Series B financing. The funds obtained from the financingWill be used to advance Capstan's lead in vivo CAR-T candidate therapy CPTX2309 in early clinical proof-of-concept for autoimmune diseases, and further develop Capstan's targeted lipid nanoparticle (tLNP) pipeline.This round of financing was led by RA Capital Management, with new investors including Forbion, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Mubadala Capital, Perceptive Advisors, and Sofinnova Investments. Capstan's existing investors, Alexandria Venture Investments, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, Leaps by Bayer, Novartis Venture Fund, OrbiMed, Pfizer Ventures, Polaris Partners, and Vida Ventures, also participated in this round of financing.Capstan Aims to Provide More Treatment Opportunities for Patients by Developing In Vivo RNA-Targeting Technology.Its core platform technology includes its proprietary LNPs, which are linked to recombinant protein binders such as monoclonal antibodies.tLNPstLNPs are designed to deliver payloads (including mRNA or gene-editing tools), enabling the reprogramming of specific cell types in vivo.▲Schematic diagram of the tLNP platform (Image source: Capstan's official website)CPTX2309 is a product of Capstan's tLNP platform, which delivers mRNA payloads encoding chimeric antigen receptors targeting CD19 to CD8-expressing T cells, effectively generating CAR-T cell therapy directly in vivo.The goal of this approach is to reset the immune system by rapidly and deeply depleting B cells in the blood and lymphoid tissues, while avoiding the challenges associated with traditional ex vivo production of CAR-T cell therapy.Dr. Laura Shawver is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Capstan. She previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Silverback Therapeutics and as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Synthorx, with over 20 years of experience in executive leadership positions. She is also the founder and director of The Clearity Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving treatment options for ovarian cancer patients.Xianbo Biotech: Cell Therapy R&D CompanyOn March 11, SinoBio announced the completion of a 200 million RMB (approximately 27 million USD) Series A+ financing round. This round was led by You Mountain Capital, with participation from Yuanhe Origin, Pudao Capital, and Guochuang Qinzhi.Xianbo Biotech is a cell therapy biotechnology company in the clinical development stage, focusing on developing innovative immunocyte therapies. According to reports,The company's universal NK platform adopts an innovatively designed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) structure, while also possessing mature and stable large-scale universal NK cell preparation capabilities.Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC)Ability.SNC102, the flagship product of SinoBio, is a CAR-T cell therapy targeting BCMA for the treatment of multiple myeloma, currently in Phase 2 clinical development.In addition, the company's first CAR-NK product pipeline, SNC103, has achieved positive results in the investigator-initiated clinical research (IIT) phase,This is an injection of NK cells genetically modified with a chimeric antigen receptor targeting CD19.Approved for clinical use in China in February this year, intended for the development of treatment for moderate to severe refractory systemic lupus erythematosus.Another product developed by Xianbo BiotechThe dual CAR-T cell therapy SNC109, which carries two CAR molecules, has also been approved for clinical trials in China and has been granted by the U.S. FDA.Orphan Drug Designation`, for the treatment of malignant glioma`. This CAR-T product cellsSurface carries two CAR molecules, targeting IL13Rα2 and HER2, respectively, which are expressed in glioblastoma.At the same time, this CAR-T therapy can also secrete bispecific antibodies (BiTE) targeting EGFR and EGFRvIII. The BiTE molecule consists of two nanobodies (VHH) and a single-chain variable fragment (scFv), connected in tandem by a flexible fusion linker, which can activate the body's own T cells to exert a killing effect.▲Sibobio R&D Pipeline (Source: Sibobio Official Website)The current CEO of Sinobiologics is Dr. Cao Zhuoxiao, who has extensive experience in cell therapy platform development and the industry.Boundless Bio: Cancer Targeted Therapy R&D CompanyOn March 27, Boundless Bio completed approximately $100 million inInitial Public Offering (IPO)。Boundless Bio is a cancer precision-targeted therapy research and development company,Dedicated to developing innovative therapies targeting extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) for patients with oncogene amplification.。ecDNA is hardly seen in healthy human cells but can be observed in some early-stage and metastatic cancers.Studies have shown that it can drive cancer progression and promote cancer drug resistance.Boundless Bio identified and validated CHK1 as a key target for ecDNA through its proprietary technology platform, Spyglass, and developed an oral CHK1 inhibitor, BBI-355.Preclinical studies have shown that BBI-355 has a synthetic lethal effect on amplified cancer cells carrying ecDNA, and the drug is currently undergoing Phase 1/2 clinical trials.Boundless Bio's second lead product, BBI-825, is an oral inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), which has recently entered Phase 1/2 clinical trials for cancer patients with gene amplifications that confer resistance to specific targeted therapies. Utilizing its Spyglass platform, Boundless Bio has other programs currently in the drug discovery and preclinical development stages.▲Boundless Bio's R&D pipeline (Source: Boundless Bio official website)The current Chief Executive Officer of the company is Mr. Zachary Hornby, who has held executive and director positions in multiple private and publicly traded biotechnology companies. He has accumulated extensive experience in business development, marketing, new product planning, finance, and regulatory affairs.Notably, Mr. Zachary Hornby was interviewed by the content team of WuXi AppTec, where he shared his insights on industry development and new drug research and development.Profound Insights. He pointed out that one of the key challenges in translating scientific research results into clinical therapies lies in the differences between existing translational research models and human models, which limits the reliability and clinical predictive ability of animal models. Mr. Hornby believes,To effectively accelerate the translation of fundamental scientific discoveries into clinical applications, a feasible strategy is to leverage genomics and other omics technologies for multi-omics characterization of patients. This approach helps to understand the key genetic and other driving factors of cancer cells, while also providing insights into their biological characteristics and identifying effective therapeutic interventions.
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References:
[1] Senova Biopharma Completes RMB 200 Million Series A+ Financing, Aiming to Develop Next-Generation Cell Therapy Products. Retrieved Mar 29, 2024, fromhttps://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PbKleNG5QkSxexTWANqmmQ
[2] Asgard Therapeutics announces €30 million Series A financing to advance its first-in-class in vivo cell reprogramming platform for immuno-oncology. Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://www.asgardthx.com/asgard-therapeutics-announces-e30-million-series-a-financing-to-advance-its-first-in-class-in-vivo-cell-reprogramming-platform-for-immuno-oncology/
[3] [1] Tubulis Closes Upsized €128 Million Series B2 to Accelerate Clinical Development of Solid Tumor-Focused ADC Pipeline. Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://tubulis.com/news/tubulis-closes-upsized-e128-million-series-b2-to-accelerate-clinical-development-of-solid-tumor-focused-adc-pipeline/
[4] Clasp Therapeutics Launches With $150 Million to Pioneer Precision Immuno-Oncology Using Next-Generation T Cell Engagers With Unparalleled Specificity. Retrieved March 29, 2024 from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240320646558/en/Clasp-Therapeutics-Launches-With-150-Million-to-Pioneer-Precision-Immuno-Oncology-Using-Next-Generation-T-Cell-Engagers-With-Unparalleled-Specificity
[5] Capstan Therapeutics Announces $175M Oversubscribed Series B Financing. Retrieved March 29， 2024, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240320334454/en/Capstan-Therapeutics-Announces-175M-Oversubscribed-Series-B-Financing
[6] Boundless Bio Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering，Retrieved March 29， 2024, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240327704934/en
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