Protego's $130m for amyloidosis drug, and other financings

Protego Biopharma is poised to start pivotal trials of its amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis drug candidate, thanks to a $130 million second-round financing.

AL amyloidosis is an incurable and potentially fatal disease that results in the rogue protein amyloid building up in organs like the heart and kidneys, and Protego reckons that its lead drug candidate PROT-001 has a chance to offer the first disease-modifying therapy.

The drug is thought to work by stabilising immunoglobulin light chains, preventing amyloid buildup, which – if proven – would be a major advance on current therapies that simply address the symptoms of AL amyloidosis.

For many years, the only available treatment was aggressive chemotherapy or a stem cell transplantation – the latter option available only to a minority of eligible patients – but that changed in 2021 when Johnson & Johnson's Darzalex Faspro (daratumumab and hyaluronidase) became the first drug to be specifically approved for the disease. Since then, other attempts to develop new therapies by AstraZeneca and Prothena have run into difficulties.

Each year, an estimated 4,500 people develop AL amyloidosis in the US alone, and there are an estimated 30,000 to 45,000 people living with the disease in the US and Europe, and 74,000 worldwide.

The financing – which follows a $51 million Series A in 2021 – was led by Novartis Venture Fund and Forbion, with new investors Omega Funds, Droia Ventures, YK Bioventures, and Digitalis Ventures joining in. Existing investors, including Vida Ventures, MPM BioImpact, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Scripps Research, also renewed their support.

Other deals this week

Also this week, Triana Biomedicines completed a Series B that will allow it to take its lead candidate TRI-611, an ALK-targeted molecular glue degrader, into clinical trials as a treatment for ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It will also allow Triana to bring a second candidate into preclinical development next year.

The financing comes just over a year after Triana forged a $1.5 billion alliance with Pfizer to develop drugs based on the biotech's molecular glue degrader platform. It was co-led by Ascenta Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, with new investors YK Bioventures, Regeneron Ventures, Invus, and Finchley Healthcare Ventures coming on board, along with a string of existing supporters, including Pfizer Ventures.

AI in drug discovery specialist Excelsior Sciences raised $95 million, made up of a $70 million Series A and a $25 million grant from New York's Empire State Development, that will be used to develop its automated, closed-loop chemistry approach to discovering and manufacturing small-molecule therapies.

Its platform is designed to synthesise batches of small molecules and test them across multiple assays simultaneously. The Series A was co-led by Deerfield, Khosla Ventures, and Sofinnova Partners, with Cornucopian Capital, Illinois Ventures, Eli Lilly, and MIT also taking part.

Finally, SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals raised $53 million in an unlabelled round that will support its efforts to develop new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases based on a broad range of disease pathways, such as Lp-PLA2, beta amyloid, and LRRK2. The targets have been linked to various diseases, including Parkinson's, and SciNeuro recently received a $5 million award from the Michael J Fox Foundation to take an LRRK2-targeting antisense candidate called SNP614 into human trials.

Arch Venture Partners and China-based LAV led the equity financing, which also received contributions from new and existing investors.

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