US-based immunotherapy developer Compass Therapeutics closed a series A round featuring life sciences real estate providers Biomed Realty and Alexandria Real Estate Equities at $132m yesterday.
Investment firm OrbiMed Advisors led the round, which was also backed by F-Prime Capital, part of investment and financial services group Fidelity, as well as Cowen Healthcare Investments, Thiel Capital, Biomatics Capital, Ulysses Holdings and Borealis Ventures.
The round was closed after Compass secured the $49m final tranche. Biomed and Alexandria participated through their respective venture capital units, Alexandria Venture Investments and Biomed Realty Ventures.
Compass has created a drug discovery platform that utilises protein engineering technology to develop antibody-based therapies intended to treat conditions such as cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases by targeting the body’s immune system.
The company currently has a 30-strong pipeline of drug candidates, 15 of which have begun preclinical testing. Its lead immuno-oncology drug candidate, CTX-471, is approaching the end of investigational new drug-enabling studies and is expected to begin clinical trials in 2019.
Thomas Schuetz, co-founder and chief executive of Compass, said: “The proceeds from this round will be used to rapidly advance our first therapeutic candidate, CTX-471, into the clinic, and to nominate two additional clinical candidates by the end of this year.”