UK's RQ Bio raises $115m for flu prevention drug
Mike Westby, RQ Bio's chief executive.
RQ Bio has raised £85.5 million ($115 million) first-round financing, led by Frazier Life Sciences, to support trials of a one-shot antibody designed to protect against seasonal influenza.
The London, UK-based start-up is currently running studies to support the start of human trials of RQB01, an off-the-shelf monoclonal antibody that is designed to provide broad protection against flu by targeting elements of the virus that stay constant across different strains.
In theory, that means the same drug could be used to protect against flu, year on year. That is a stark contrast to current seasonal flu vaccines, which need to be modified annually in a bid to ensure they target the strain most likely to be circulating in the coming season. Moreover, as flu viruses can mutate rapidly, the lead time for making vaccines means that the strain selection is incorrect, reducing their effectiveness.
RQB01 is being developed as an annual, prophylactic injection that is resilient to strain evolution, initially to prevent serious disease in vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and immunocompromised.
Its proposed use is analogous to drugs like AstraZeneca and Sanofi's Beyfortus (nirsevimab) and MSD's Enflonsia (clesrovimab), used to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease in infants, drugs to protect at-risk patients from COVID-19, and experimental antibodies for other infections, such as HIV.
RQ Bio has a track record in the approach, having discovered Kavigale (sipavibart), an antibody licensed to AstraZeneca that was approved last year to prevent COVID-19 in immunocompromised individuals aged 12 years and over.
"Influenza remains a serious and persistent threat for patients whose immune systems cannot rely on vaccination alone," said Mike Westby, RQ Bio's chief executive, who has previously held senior roles at Roche and Pfizer and also co-founded Centauri Therapeutics and Agalimmune/Avvinity Therapeutics.
"Our vision is to develop a preventative therapy capable of delivering reliable protection for an entire flu season with a single administration," he added. "This financing will support clinical development of RQB01, as well as advance our proprietary antibody discovery approach towards a pipeline of assets for prophylaxis of respiratory viral diseases."
The financing comes five years after RQ Bio was founded and was supported by new investors EQT Life Sciences, Forbion, Monograph, and Wellington Management, as well as founding investor LifeArc Ventures.
Alongside the Series A, RQ Bio has also bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of biotech industry veteran Christian Schade as its executive chairman. Schade, who is an advisor to Frazier Life Sciences, was most recently CEO of Halda Therapeutics, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $3.05 billion last December.
