ZielBio Secures $25.1M Series A Financing to Advance Tumor-Targeted Therapy ZB131 into Clinical Development

On September 29, 2019, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned via Business Wire that biotechnology company ZielBio announced the completion of a $25.1 million Series A financing round. The round was led by Morningside Venture Investments and Partners Innovation Fund (PIF).

It is reported that ZielBio plans to use the funds from this financing round to explore novel oncology targets and advance the Phase I clinical trial of its targeted drug, ZB131. In addition, Dr. Jason Dinges, Investment Advisor at Morningside Technology Advisory, and Dr. Meredith Fisher, Partner at PIF, will join ZielBio’s Board of Directors.

ZielBio, an early-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Virginia, USA, is led by its founder, Dr. Kimberly Kelly. The company is dedicated to exploring novel disease targets and developing biologics and innovative therapies to improve patient outcomes.

ZielBio has developed Zielfind, a drug discovery platform. Featuring high-throughput screening (HTS) and large-scale data analytics capabilities, the platform enables the identification and screening of high-quality therapeutic targets for disease treatment. Leveraging the Zielfind platform, ZielBio’s drug development team identified cell surface lectin (CSP) as a cancer target and developed its lead candidate drug, ZB131.

ZB131 is a lead compound that exhibits good tolerability and demonstrates efficacy against various types of cancer. This drug is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting CSP, which is highly expressed on the surface of tumor cells in ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and other malignancies, making it a high-quality target for cancer therapy. Clinical trials have shown that ZB131’s immune-activating potency exceeds that of checkpoint inhibitors such as ipilimumab and nivolumab, while its direct tumor-killing capability is superior to that of trastuzumab and cetuximab.

Dr. Meredith Fisher stated, “Dr. Kimberly Kelly is the first discoverer of CSP, a cancer target. Research has demonstrated that this substance plays a critical role in cell proliferation, migration, and survival. Targeting CSP as a drug target enables the treatment of a range of complex, hard-to-cure cancers. Extensive preclinical trials and animal studies have shown that ZB131 exhibits high affinity for CSP and can induce target tumor cells to cease growth or undergo cell death.”

Dr. Jason Dinges stated, “Despite the rapid advancement of tumor immunology, current immunotherapies remain limited, and there is still an urgent need for new targets among biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Compared with checkpoint inhibitors such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors, ZB131 demonstrates greater immune activation and stronger tumor cell-killing efficacy.”

Morningside Venture Investments, headquartered in New York, USA, is a venture capital firm. The company has invested in biotechnology and pharmaceutical enterprises such as Epivax, CellCentric, and ENYO Pharma.

PIF, a venture capital firm established in 2007 and headquartered in Massachusetts, USA, primarily focuses on industries such as medical technology, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices to drive development in the healthcare sector.

(Compiled by Xu Xiaoxue)