Dren Bio pockets $350m for rare blood cancer programme
Nenad Tomasevic, Dren Bio's founder and chief executive.
Dren Bio has closed a sizeable private financing round, raising $350 million to fund pivotal trials of its potentially first-in-class therapy for rare blood cancers and other diseases.
The San Carlos, California, biotech's lead candidate is dibotatug (DR-01) – an antibody that targets the CD94 receptor found on pathogenic, chronically activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells and some tumour cells.
The drug is in phase 1/2 testing for two rare haematological malignancies – cytotoxic T-cell lymphoma (CTL) and large granular lymphocytic leukaemia (LGLL) – which currently have no approved therapies.
Thanks to the new funding round, which was co-led by Juvia Group and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Dren plans to advance dibotatug through registration trials and onto the market in both indications, whilst also developing it for other types of blood cancer and for autoimmune diseases.
It will also use the cash for follow-up candidate DR-0202, vying to be a first-in-class bispecific antibody that harnesses myeloid cells to selectively deplete cancer cells by targeting an as-yet unidentified cell surface receptor, and other undisclosed programmes.
"Seeing dibotatug advance to this late stage of development, alongside a clinically validated platform that continues to generate promising new therapies, is deeply gratifying and reflects the vision that inspired us from day one,” said Nenad Tomasevic, Dren Bio's founder and chief executive.
"Today’s financing, supported by an exceptional group of new and existing investors who share our mission is a proud moment for the team, and positions us to accelerate the development of novel therapies for a range of diseases," he added.
The financing round was also supported by new investors Mirae Asset Capital Life Science, General Catalyst, Cormorant Asset Management, as well as prior backers 8VC, SR One, Taiho Ventures, Mission BioCapital, HBM Healthcare Investments, BVF Partners, Aisling Capital, and ArrowMark Partners.
Dren's bispecific myeloid cell engager discovery platform has already attracted the attention of three pharma partners – Pfizer, Sanofi, and Novartis- worth around $1 billion, $1.9 billion, and $3 billion, respectively.
Of these, Sanofi's is the furthest ahead in development, focused on CD20- and CLEC7A-targeting DR-0201 (now SAR448501), which is in early-stage clinical testing and has potential as a treatment for autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
