US-based vaccine developer SutroVax received $110m yesterday in a series D round featuring pharmaceutical firm Roche, which invested through corporate venturing subsidiary Roche Venture Fund.
RA Capital Management and Janus Henderson Investors co-led the round, which included Pivotal BioVenture Partners, the healthcare technology fund backed by property developer Nan Fung, as well as TPG Growth, Abingworth, Longitude Capital, Frazier Healthcare Partners, Medicxi, CTI Life Sciences and Foresite Capital.
Spun off from biopharmaceutical company Sutro Biopharma in 2014, SutroVax is working on vaccines for common and deadly infectious diseases.
SutroVax’s lead asset, SVX-24, is aimed at residual pneumococcal disease, which can cause a range of serious illnesses, such as sinus or middle ear infection, pneumonia, bacterial meningitis and bacteremia, a dangerous infection of the blood stream.
An existing vaccine for pneumococcal disease is administered to children under two years old as a matter of routine medical care but is only able to fend off 13 strains of the disease.
SutroVax’s version is intended to protect against 24 strains, including those causing high fatality rates, antibiotic resistance and meningitis, and SVX-24 has successfully completed preclinical proof-of-concept studies.
The company is also working on additional vaccines, including one to treat gum disease and one to prevent group A strep: bacteria found on the skin and in the throat that are a common cause of infections.
Derek DiRocco, principal at RA Capital Management, and Agustin Mohedas, a research analyst at Janus Henderson Investors, have taken observer positions on SutroVax’s board of directors.
Roche Venture Fund took part in an $85m series C round for the company in 2018 that was led by TPG Growth and backed by Pivotal BioVenture Partners, Abingworth, Longitude Capital, Frazier Healthcare Partners, CTI Life Sciences, Medicxi and Foresite Capital.
Pivotal co-led SutoVax’s $60m series B round the year before, with contributions from Roche Venture Fund, Abingworth, Longitude Capital and CTI raised alongside an extra $4m from undisclosed existing backers.
SutroVax had previously secured $22m in a 2015 series A round led by Abingworth that also featured Roche Venture Fund, Longitude Capital and CTI.
