Switzerland-based immune-oncology drug developer Numab Therapeutics completed a CHF22m ($23.8m) series B round on Monday that included pharmaceutical companies 3SBio Group and Eisai.
The round also featured Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, the venture capital arm of financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, as well as company board member Daniel Vasella and unnamed existing backers. 3SBio invested through subsidiary Sunshine Guojian.
Numab is creating multi-specific antibodies through its Match platform, with the aim of developing immunotherapies to treat cancer by triggering immune response.
The company has two drug candidates in investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies and the series B proceeds are intended to advance one of them, ND021, into clinical trials by the end of this year.
The round follows a strategic collaboration agreement between Numab and Sunshine Guojian in December 2019 through which the latter agreed to invest CHF15m in Numab’s then forthcoming series B round.
Eisai had formed a research and option pact with Numab two months earlier that involved them agreeing to jointly discover and develop a multi-specific antibody immunotherapy portfolio for cancer.
Founded in 2011, Numab has not disclosed details of its series A funding, but its website lists CStone Pharmaceuticals, Ono Pharmaceutical, Kaken Pharmaceutical and Tillotts Pharma as additional partners.
