US-based protein therapeutics developer Ambrx closed $45m in financing from investors including pharmaceuticals distributor Sinopharm, drug producer Fosun Pharma and healthcare group Humanwell Healthcare yesterday.
Apricot Capital and Northeast Securities Prosperity Healthcare Fund co-led the round, which included Hopu Investments and Everbright Limited Healthcare Fund, a subsidiary of investment firm China Everbright.
Sinopharm and Humanwell participated through respective subsidiaries Sinopharm Capital and Humanwell Healthcare Fund.
Ambrx is working on optimised protein therapeutics called bio-conjugates that will be used for oncology treatments, or to modulate biological pathways relevant to autoimmune, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.
The company raised about $78m in funding from investors including pharmaceutical companies Roche and Merck Serono between 2003 and 2009 before a consortium of Fosun Pharma, pharmaceutical firm WuXi PharmaTech, Hopu Investments and China Everbright subsidiary CEL Healthcare Fund agreed to acquire it in May 2015.
The funding will be used to advance Ambrx’s lead product candidate, an antibody drug conjugate called ARX788 which targets over-expressing tumours in breast, gastric, colon, pancreatic and ovarian cancers. ARX788 is currently undergoing phase 1 clinical testing.
Alex Qiao, CEO of Ambrx, said: “The new investors along with our existing investors brought together a perfect combination of strategic pharmaceutical investments as well as top tier private financial investments.
“This clearly shows the confidence from the investors in the Ambrx technology platform for its broad impact and great potential in biological drug development.
“The new funding resources will allow us to accelerate the development of our programs, and to make improvements to our technology platform.”