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Amphista Therapeutics

Mar 17
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Amphista Therapeutics raises $53M in oversubscribed Series B round to advance next generation targeted protein degradation assets

By Amphista Therapeutics, Press Release, Private Companies
Press Release.

 

Financing includes leading life-science investors Gilde Healthcare, Forbion, Novartis Venture Fund and Eli Lilly and Company

 

Glasgow, UK, 17 March 2021 – Amphista Therapeutics, a leader in next generation targeted protein degradation (TPD) approaches, today announced the closing of a $53 million (£38 million) Series B financing round. The round was co-led by Forbion and Gilde Healthcare. Additional investors in this round include Novartis Venture Fund, and Eli Lilly and Company, joining existing investor BioMotiv and founding investor Advent Life Sciences. The proceeds will be used to accelerate the company’s growing pipeline of potent and selective bifunctional molecules, known as ‘Amphistas’ to the clinic and to extend its proprietary TPD platform.

Amphista’s CEO Nicola Thompson said,

“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.”

Rogier Rooswinkel, Partner at co-lead investor, Forbion said,

“We are delighted to have selected Amphista as the first company to invest in from our fifth fund that closed late last year. Amphista combines several attributes we typically look for: a world-class team, innovative science, and a disruptive technology that has the potential to improve treatment options and thus impact many patients’ lives.”

Stefan Luzi, Partner at co-lead investor Gilde, said,

“Amphista emerged as the best-in-class protein degradation company in our comprehensive landscaping effort. We believe this team, who are pioneers in this field, combined with a truly unique platform, will unlock the full therapeutic potential of a broad range of disease targets. Amphista represents a strong fit with Gilde’s longstanding strategy of identifying Europe’s leading science and of engaging with experienced drug developers to build and support high growth (bio)pharma companies.”

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.

In association with this financing, Amphista has added the following leading life science executives to the Board: Stefan Luzi, Partner at Gilde Healthcare; Rogier Rooswinkel, Partner at Forbion; and Florian Muellershausen, Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund.

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Media contacts:

Amphista Therapeutics
CEO Nicola Thompson
+447464974714
nicki@amphista.com

Scius Communications
Katja Stout
+447789435990
katja@sciuscommunications.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, please visit: http://www.amphista.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, please visit www.AdventLS.com

About Forbion

Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Singapore. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the (bio-) pharmaceutical space.

Forbion manages well over EUR 1.7 billion across multiple fund strategies that cover all stages of (bio)pharmaceutical drug development. Forbion’s current team consists of 20 life sciences investment professionals that have built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in over 69 companies.

The firm is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Besides financial objectives, Forbion selects investments that will positively affect the health and wellbeing of patients. Its investors include the EIF, through its European Recovery Programme (ERP), LfA, Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI), AMUF and EFSI facilities and KfW Capital through the Programme, “ERP – Venture Capital Fonds investments”. Forbion operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early-stage funds, especially focused on Benelux and Germany.

For more information, please visit www.forbion.com.

About Gilde Healthcare

Gilde Healthcare is a specialized healthcare investor with $1.8 billion under management across two fund strategies: Venture & Growth and Private Equity. The firm operates out of offices in Utrecht (The Netherlands), Frankfurt (Germany) and Cambridge (United States).

Gilde Healthcare Venture & Growth invests in innovative companies active in (Bio)Pharmaceuticals, HealthTech and MedTech. The portfolio of the Venture & Growth fund is balanced with fast growing life science companies from Europe and North America.

For more information, please visit www.gildehealthcare.com.

About Novartis Venture Fund

Novartis Venture Fund is a financially driven corporate life science venture fund whose purpose is to foster innovation, drive significant patient benefit and generate superior returns by creating and investing in innovative life science companies at various stages of their development.

For more information, please visit www.nvfund.com.

About Eli Lilly and Company

Lilly is a global health care leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. They were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today they remain true to that mission in all their work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism.

For more information, please visit www.lilly.com and www.lilly.com/newsroom.

About BioMotiv

BioMotiv is a mission-driven accelerator associated with The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, a $340 million initiative focused on advancing early stage breakthrough discoveries from research institutions into medicines. Led by a highly accomplished and passionate team of veteran biopharma experts, BioMotiv’s innovative model efficiently aligns resources and capital to select, fund, manage and advance a portfolio of drug development programs.

For more information, please visit: www.biomotiv.com

May 21
Love0

Amphista Therapeutics appoints leading protein degradation pioneer, Ian Churcher as CSO

By Amphista Therapeutics, Press Release, Private Companies
Press Release.

 

Glasgow, Scotland, 21 May 2020 – Amphista Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company creating first-in-class cancer therapeutics that harness the body’s natural processes to remove disease causing proteins selectively and efficiently, today announced the appointment of Dr Ian Churcher as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).

Amphista’s CEO Dr Nicola Thompson said,

“I’m delighted to welcome Ian to the team. As an internationally recognised leader in the field of targeted protein degradation (TPD) as a therapeutic modality, Ian’s scientific leadership will be a tremendous addition to the Amphista team as we progress our TPD pipeline to the clinic. Ian’s appointment so soon after last month’s $7.5m Series A financing signals Amphista’s determination to deliver on its vision to create a world-leading protein degradation company delivering ground-breaking new medicines in areas of high patient need.”

Ian commented on his appointment,

“I’ve long sought out novel approaches to address traditionally undruggable targets in areas of high patient need. Amphista has a unique approach to targeted protein degradation and Nicola has quickly built a high-quality team. I’m excited by the opportunity to help Amphista develop its novel platform further and rapidly advance its lead projects into the clinic. As Amphista’s approach is very different to existing targeted degradation approaches, it offers significant potential to address a wide range of targets to ultimately help patients across many hard to treat diseases.”

Between 2012-2017, Ian led the Protein Degradation Discovery Performance Unit at GSK where, in collaboration with Professors Craig Crews and Alessio Ciulli, they pioneered the use of VHL-dependent PROTACs, culminating in landmark publications. Ian has also led teams developing drug discovery technologies and advancing medicines across multiple therapy areas during an R&D career at Merck & GSK. More recently, Ian led research at biotechnology companies aiming to change the way drug R&D is carried out, including as SVP Drug Discovery at BenevolentAI. There, working closely with machine learning and data science experts, he advanced a portfolio of programmes and helped develop novel AI-led methods for target identification and chemical optimisation. Ian holds an MA and D.Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford where he was also Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemistry.

Amphista’s TPD small molecules instruct cells to degrade disease-causing target proteins directly, giving a clear therapeutic advantage over simple target inhibition. Specifically, Amphista’s platform is independent of traditional E3 ubiquitin ligases used by the field, potentially expanding the available target scope of TPD approaches and should overcome recently identified PROTAC® resistance mechanisms.

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Media contacts:

Amphista Therapeutics
CEO NicolaThompson
+447464974714
nicki@amphista.com

Scius Communications
Katja Stout
+447789435990
katja@sciuscommunications.com

About Amphista Therapeutics

Amphista Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company creating first-in-class therapeutics that help harness the body’s natural processes to selectively and efficiently degrade and remove disease causing proteins. The company’s pipeline of novel small molecules that cause targeted protein degradation (TPD) is focused on challenging diseases including cancer. Amphista is a spin-out of renowned TPD expert Professor Alessio Ciulli’s labs at the University of Dundee, and is based in BioCity Glasgow, Scotland. The company is funded by leading life science investors including Advent Life Sciences, the European Investment Fund, the Scottish Investment Bank, and BioMotiv. For more information, visit http://www.amphista.com/

Apr 07
Love0

Amphista Therapeutics raises $7.5m Series A round to advance targeted protein degradation assets in cancer

By Amphista Therapeutics, Press Release, Private Companies
Press Release.

 

April 7, 2020

  • Amphista’s potent bifunctional small molecules augment targeted protein degradation
  • Investors include Advent Life Sciences, the Scottish Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund and US-based BioMotiv

Glasgow, Scotland, 7 April 2020 – Amphista Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company creating first-in-class cancer therapeutics that harness the body’s natural processes to selectively and efficiently degrade and remove disease causing proteins, today announced the closing of a USD $7.5m Series A round, led by Advent Life Sciences. Seed round funders the Scottish Investment Bank, with backing from the Scottish Growth Scheme, and the European Investment Fund joined the round, along with new investor, US-based life sciences BioMotiv.

Amphista’s CEO Nicola Thompson said,

“This international financing provides Amphista with a firm foundation to underpin a Series B round to progress our oncology pipeline to the clinic. Our vision is to create a leading protein degradation company on the global stage that delivers ground-breaking new medicines to patients in areas of high unmet need.”

Raj Parekh, General Partner at lead investor Advent Life Sciences said,

“We are excited to support Amphista in its next stage of development. The Company has a potentially unique approach to targeted protein degradation when compared with traditional proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC®) platforms. We believe that Amphista has great potential with its differentiated proprietary technology to address traditionally undruggable targets.”

Satish Jindal, CEO of BioMotiv, and newly appointed Amphista Chairman, commented,

“We are a mission-driven accelerator, and we are excited by Amphista’s focus to rapidly produce potent bifunctional small molecules to augment the body’s own processes to remove disease-associated proteins. We see huge potential to accelerate Amphista’s breakthrough technology platform into medicines.”

Amphista’s scientific founder, Professor Alessio Ciulli, based at the University of Dundee, is an internationally renowned expert in the field of targeted protein degradation (TPD).

“Highly specific TPD is a transformative new modality for tackling previously undruggable targets with high therapeutic value.”

said Ciulli.

Amphista’s TPD small molecules instruct the cell to degrade the target directly rather than activating or inhibiting the target protein function. As protein-protein interactions are involved in disease progression, removing the target protein provides a clear therapeutic advantage over simple inhibition. Specifically, Amphista’s platform is independent of traditional E3 ubiquitin ligases used by the field, potentially expanding the available target scope of TPD approaches and should overcome recently identified PROTAC® resistance mechanisms.

Media contacts:

Amphista Therapeutics
CEO NicolaThompson
+447464974714
nicki@amphista.com

Scius Communications
Katja Stout
+447789435990
katja@sciuscommunications.com

About Amphista Therapeutics
Amphista Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company creating first-in-class therapeutics that help harness the body’s natural processes to selectively and efficiently degrade and remove disease causing proteins. The company’s pipeline of novel small molecules that cause targeted protein degradation (TPD) is focused on challenging diseases including cancer. Amphista is a spinout of renowned TPD expert Professor Alessio Ciulli’s labs at the University of Dundee, and is based in BioCity Glasgow, Scotland. The company is funded by leading life science investors including Advent Life Sciences, the European Investment Fund, the Scottish Investment Bank, and BioMotiv. For more information, visit http://www.amphista.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 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, please visit AdventLS.com.

About the Scottish Investment Bank
The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is the investment arm of Scotland’s national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

SIB’s activities support Scotland’s SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to growth capital and loan funding. It helps ambitious Scottish companies get the right level of funding from the right sources at the right time, through building relationships with both domestic and international investors.

SIB manages a suite of co-investment funds including the Scottish Co-Investment Fund, the Scottish Venture Fund and the Energy Investment Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government. SIB is also an investor in Epidarex Capital’s Life Sciences Fund and administers the Scottish Loan Scheme, with funding secured from the Scottish Government’s Scottish Growth Scheme.

Furthermore, SIB provides funding into LendingCrowd, Scotland’s marketplace lender providing loans to SMEs, and Maven’s Regional Buyout Fund (MBO) that offers financial support for management buyouts (MBOs) and helps existing management teams acquire businesses from their owners so they can continue to flourish.

SIB’s team of financial readiness specialists help companies prepare for new investment and access appropriate finance.

About BioMotiv
https://www.biomotiv.com
BioMotiv is a mission-driven accelerator associated with The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, a $340 million initiative focused on advancing early stage breakthrough discoveries from research institutions into medicines. Led by a highly accomplished and passionate team of veteran biopharma experts, BioMotiv’s innovative model efficiently aligns resources and capital to select, fund, manage and advance a portfolio of drug development programs.