Inhibrx Secures $40 Million in Equity Financing to Advance Multivalent Therapeutics for Oncology and Cellular Diseases

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media that on May 21, U.S. local time, the biopharmaceutical company Inhibrx completed a $40 million equity financing. Since its inception, Inhibrx has raised approximately $205 million in total, including $135 million in investment capital and $70 million in grants.

It is reported that this round of financing was completed by Viking Global Investors, with Evercore serving as the financial advisor to Inhibrx for this issuance.

Inhibrx, founded in 2017 and headquartered in California, USA, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of biotherapeutic candidates. Leveraging diverse protein engineering technologies, Inhibrx addresses complex needs in targeted drug delivery and disease treatment within the medical field. The company’s current primary therapeutic areas include oncology, infectious diseases, and orphan diseases.

The SdAb platform is Inhibrx’s flagship product, enabling the development of candidate therapeutics that are superior to other monoclonal antibodies and fusion proteins. It allows for the combination of multiple monomeric molecules in various configurations to develop targeted drugs that act directly on human cells for the treatment of diseases.

This platform features the following characteristics: (1) Precise analysis of cell membrane data for drug development. SdAb can analyze the biological properties of patients' somatic cells and customize targeted drug molecules based on the distribution and quantity of cell surface receptors; (2) Optimization of monomeric molecule performance. By combining multiple monomeric drug molecules, SdAb can integrate different types of drugs, significantly enhancing their therapeutic efficacy. This newly generated fused drug can also be used to treat complex cellular diseases; (3) Simultaneous connection to multiple antigens and epitopes. SdAb can not only link monomeric drugs but also connect antigens, thereby enhancing drug action and achieving efficient disease treatment; (4) Reduction of harm to other human tissues through targeted therapy of diseased cells.

Typically, cell surface receptors must be activated before they can bind drug molecules to treat intracellular diseases. These cellular receptors are more readily activated upon clustering; however, achieving such clustering has proven difficult in clinical trials. Inhibrx Biosciences has found that increasing valency enhances receptor clustering, thereby facilitating rapid activation. The multivalent therapeutics developed on the SdAb platform offer a novel solution to this challenge, paving the way for promising advances in cell therapy.

Mark Lappe, CEO of Inhibrx Biosciences, stated, “We are grateful for the support from our new investors. The company is at a critical stage of development, and the funds from this financing round will be used to advance the development of our SdAb platform, helping the healthcare industry develop more therapeutic proteins.”

Viking Global Investors, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Connecticut, USA, is a global investment firm managing over $20 billion in capital, with offices in Greenwich, New York, London, and Hong Kong. On August 29, 2011, SinoCubate, a global financial advisory and investment company, acquired Viking Global Investors.

(Compiled by Liu Yujing)