Press Release.
This investment will fund Amphista Therapeutics’ growing pipeline of potent and selective bifunctional molecules, known as ‘Amphistas’ to the clinic and extend its proprietary platform.
London, UK, 17 March 2021 – Advent Life Sciences (“Advent”) a leading transatlantic venture investor focused on building innovative life science companies in the UK, Europe and the US, today announces that Amphista Therapeutics, an Advent founded biotech and leader in next generation targeted protein degradation (TPD) approaches, has closed a $53 million (£38 million) Series B financing round. Advent Life Sciences, and existing investor BioMotiv, will be joined by a strong syndicate of new investors: Forbion, Gilde Healthcare, the Novartis Venture Fund and Eli Lilly & Company.
Amphista’s TPD approach offers a greatly improved way of treating disease and modulating drug targets, using synthetic small molecule degraders. Amphista’s next generation bifunctional degraders use a novel set of mechanisms that make use of a wider range of the body’s own innate protein degrading proteins, instead of the very narrow set of ubiquitin E3 ligase-based mechanisms used by most other TPD companies. This proprietary approach offers the potential to overcome many of the limitations seen with current TPD approaches, providing the opportunity to treat a wider range of diseases. Amphista is focused on biological targets with a high level of clinical or genetic validation, allowing the team to focus on the translation of their novel TPD approach for clinical benefit in areas of high unmet need.
Raj Parekh, General Partner, Advent Life Sciences commented:
“Advent over the last 20 years has continued to found and invest in the highest quality life science companies. With its exceptional academic and medical science base, many of these companies have originated from the UK. Amphista is another example of Advent’s continuing strategy to identify innovative and differentiated science as the basis of world-leading companies that will address areas of high unmet medical need. The Advent team have worked closely with Professor Alessio Ciulli, the University of Dundee and the Amphista team to found and to grow the company. We are delighted to be joined by this strong syndicate of experienced investors and pharmaceutical companies for the next stage in Amphista’s growth.”
Nicola Thompson, CEO, Amphista Therapeutics commented:
“This financing round, led by an outstanding investor syndicate, is a strong endorsement of our world class team and our novel approach. Amphista will now accelerate its oncology pipeline towards the clinic and extend our portfolio into indications largely inaccessible by traditional TPD approaches, such as diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). This oversubscribed Series B supports our ambition as a world-leading next generation protein degradation company delivering ground-breaking new medicines to patients in areas of high unmet need.”
In addition to Amphista, Advent has founded over 20 new biotech companies. Recent examples include Arrakis Therapeutics that struck an $190 million partnership deal with Roche in the first half of 2020, and KaNDy Therapeutics which was acquired by Bayer Pharmaceuticals for over $875 million also last year. Advent continues to invest at seed, series A and beyond, backing companies to develop new therapeutics and high-potential medical technologies. Advent’s team includes 16 investment professionals with a track record of supporting entrepreneurs to deliver innovative new medicines and products. In the last 15 years, Advent’s portfolio companies have discovered 14 first- or best-in-class medicines and products that have successfully achieved regulatory approval, each for a different and unmet medical need.
The full announcement from Amphista can be found here: Amphista Therapeutics raises $53M
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Media contacts:
Advent Life Sciences
Laura Lane
+ 44 (0) 7795 469 847
pr@adventls.com
Amphista Therapeutics
CEO Nicola Thompson
+44 (0) 7464 974714
nicki@amphista.com
Scius Communications for Amphista
Katja Stout
+44 (0) 7789 435990
katja@sciuscommunications.com
About Advent Life Sciences
Advent Life Sciences founds and invests in early- and mid-stage life sciences companies that have a first- or best-in-class approach to unmet medical needs. The investing team consists of experienced professionals, each with extensive scientific, medical and operational experience, a long-standing record of entrepreneurial and investment success in the UK, the US and Europe and is particularly focused on supporting entrepreneurs and founders to take innovative new medical entities from concept to approval. The firm invests in a range of sectors within life sciences, principally drug discovery, enabling technologies and med tech, always with an emphasis on innovative, paradigm-changing approaches. Advent Life Sciences has a presence in the UK, US and France.
For more information, refer to: www.adventls.com
About Amphista Therapeutics
Amphista Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company creating first-in-class therapeutics that harness the body’s natural processes to selectively and efficiently degrade and remove disease-causing proteins. The company’s pipeline of novel targeted protein degradation (TPD) based medicines is focused on challenging diseases including cancer. Founded by Advent Life Sciences, Amphista is a spin-out of TPD expert Professor Alessio Ciulli’s labs at the University of Dundee. The company has raised approximately £45M to date and is funded by leading life science investors including Forbion, Gilde Healthcare, Novartis Venture Fund, Advent Life Sciences, BioMotiv and Eli Lilly and Company.
For more information, refer to: www.amphista.com
