Visterra Therapeutics Tops Off Series C Financing with $ 46.7M
A clinical-stage biotechnology company, Visterra Therapeutics, has hauled a whopping $46.7 million in series C financing, including a new extension totaling $23.6 million.
Investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MRL Ventures Fund, as well as Flagship Pioneering. The funding will help the venture continue its development efforts for two lead candidates, labeled VIS410 and VIS649, along with continuing refinement of its technology platform for antibody Fc engineering capabilities.
Visterra has returned from private investors with notably less than that, although the series C will be enough to move key assets past milestones. Most importantly, Visterra now has the money to wrap up a phase 2a of influenza A treatment VIS410 in ambulatory patients and start a phase 2b of the same monoclonal antibody in hospitalized patients.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech startup is focussed on its Hierotope platform to identify unique disease targets and to design and engineer precision antibody-based biological medicines against such targets that are not adequately addressed with conventional approaches. These targets include infectious organisms such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi, which have a high degree of diversity among strains with frequent mutations. Visterra’s technology is also
uniquely capable of engineering biological medicines that selectively modify the activity of endogenous targets that have limited surface area, are hard to access, have dynamic structures, and/or are similar to other proteins in the body that should be avoided.The company’s other product candidates are VIS513, a monoclonal antibody in development as a single-dose administration for the treatment of dengue, VIS649, a monoclonal antibody in development for the treatment of IgA nephropathy, and VIS705, an antibody-drug conjugate being developed as a single-dose curative therapy, engineered to kill all strains of the deadly Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, including potentially multi-drug resistant strains. In addition, Visterra has applied its Hierotope platform to develop novel modifications to the Fc region of an antibody, to enhance half-life by as much as ten-fold while maintaining and often improving effector function. These capabilities, called ViStar™ antibody Fc engineering, support the development of long-acting monoclonal antibodies for the extended protection in infectious diseases and less frequent administration in chronic diseases.
“We are grateful for the funding and support from high-quality new and existing investors, which recognizes the versatility and unique potential of our novel Hierotope platform and supports the advancement of Visterra’s product pipeline,” said Brian J. G. Pereira, M.D., President and CEO of Visterra. “We look forward to several key milestones over the next 18 months, including top-line results from our VIS410 Phase 2a clinical trial in ambulatory patients with influenza A in early 2018 and the initiation of our VIS410 Phase 2b clinical trial in hospitalized patients with influenza A in early 2018, as well as the initiation of clinical trials for both VIS649, our IgA nephropathy product candidate, and VIS513, our antibody for the treatment of dengue, currently being developed by our partner, the Serum Institute of India.”
Dr. Pereira also commented, “Our Hierotope platform has been very productive in generating a range of promising therapeutic antibodies beyond VIS410, VIS513, and VIS649. As we continue to apply and further enhance our Hierotope platform, including our novel ViStar antibody Fc engineering capabilities, we will consider collaborations with strategic partners relating to these capabilities and for select assets generated from our platform.”
