UK-based antibody developer Kymab raised $100m yesterday in a series C round featuring pharmaceuticals producer Shenzhen Hepalink and life sciences company Malin Corporation.
The round was led by Ori Healthcare Fund, a China-based venture capital fund launched by former Goldman Sachs bankers and healthcare scientists, and included Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CF Woodford Equity Income Fund and Woodford Patient Capital.
Kymab is working on humanised antibodies based on its Kymouse antibody platform to treat cancer and other diseases.
The company’s main focus is immuno-oncology but it is also developing monoclonal antibodies covering haematology, autoimmune disease and infectious diseases. It will put the funding toward advancing its product pipeline.
Dave Chiswell, chief executive of Kymab, said: “Ori Fund and Hepalink bring deep experience of the pharmaceutical industry. Hepalink has a global reach for their products and have biologics manufacturing capability in the US.
“This investment will help us maximise the potential of the Kymab pipeline as we develop and commercialise monoclonal antibody medicines for patients worldwide.”
The series C round follows $90m of series B funding closed in May 2015 after Malin and Woodford Patient Capital Trust provided $50m, a year after Wellcome Trust and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had each invested $20m.
Wellcome Trust had initially invested £20m ($30m at contemporary exchange rates) in Kymab, which was spun out of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, in 2010.