US-based anti-infective drug developer Amplyx Pharmaceuticals increased its series C round to more than $90m on Tuesday with extra funding from investors including pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Lundbeck.
The company announced in 2017 that it had raised $67m in series C funding, but a securities filing at the time indicates only $40m had been closed. A separate filing in January this year revealed it had since expanded the round to $91.3m in size.
Pfizer took part in the extension while Lundbeck subsidiary Lundbeckfonden Ventures and Biomed Ventures, the venture capital arm of life sciences real estate investment trust BioMed Realty, both returned from the first tranche.
Sofinnova Investments led the round, which included new investor Adage Capital Management as well as 3×5 Partners, Arix Bioscience, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Pappas Capital and RiverVest Venture Partners, all of which were there for the first close.
Amplyx is developing medicines aimed at patients whose immune systems are compromised. It will spend the cash on advancing fosmanogepix, a treatment for life-threatening fungal infections, and MAU868, which is focused on infections in kidney transplant patients. Both are at the phase 2 clinical stage.
The company completed a $49.2m series B round in 2016 featuring BioMed Ventures, 3×5 Partners, NEA, RiverVest Venture Partners and unnamed private investors, six years after the $1.5m series A round that included Golden Seeds, Life Science Angels and Tech Coast Angels.
Ciara Kennedy, Amplyx’s president and CEO, said: “This financing enables us to build on positive initial data for our lead program, fosmanogepix, in invasive candidemia, and expand to proof of concept studies in other invasive and difficult-to-treat fungal infections, including invasive aspergillosis.
“In addition, we continue to advance MAU868, our monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of clinically significant BKV infection in people who have received either a kidney or hematopoietic cell transplant.”
