Date: 2020-01-07
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: Vectivbio (Switzerland)
Investors: Versant Ventures (USA) OrbiMed (USA) Novo Holdings (Denmark) BPI France (France) Tekla Healthcare Investors (USA) Inserm Transfer Initiative (France) Cowen Healthcare Investments (USA)
Amount: $35 million
Funding type: fundraising
Planned used: The funds will be used to finance the formation of VectivBio. This global, clinical-stage biotechnology company will focus on developing transformational therapeutics to patients living with serious, rare diseases. The company is committed to pursuing rare diseases with well-defined biology that can be targeted with best-in-disease therapies that have the potential to meaningfully transform and improve the lives of patients and their families, not just provide an incremental improvement or benefit over the standard-of-care. VectivBio’s lead program, apraglutide, is a next-generation GLP-2 analog for the treatment of short bowel syndrome (SBS). An estimated 35,000 people are thought to suffer from SBS in the U.S. and Europe. SBS results from extensive intestinal resection due to chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), acute events such as trauma, mesenteric infarction, bariatric surgery or congenital abnormalities. After surgical resection, the anatomy of the remnant intestine can vary significantly across patients, configuring a spectrum of SBS anatomical subtypes depending on remnant intestine length, presence of a stoma and the presence or absence of a functional colon. Patients with severe SBS require lifelong intravenous delivery of essential nutrients, referred to as parenteral support, for survival. Apraglutide aims to increase the intestine’s ability to absorb fluids and nutrients, thereby minimizing the burden of parenteral support. With a once-weekly dosing regimen, apraglutide is designed to have best-in-class properties with the goal of improving patients’ quality of life and their ability to thrive. In addition, apraglutide’s development program is designed to generate evidence of meaningful clinical benefit based on patients’ underlying intestinal anatomy in order to enable a patient-tailored treatment approach. Topline results from two Phase 2 studies of apraglutide in SBS patients are expected by the end of the first quarter of 2020. Based on preclinical and clinical data to date, apraglutide has the potential to be a best-in-class treatment for SBS, designed for once-weekly dosing with the potential to address the needs of patients across the anatomical disease spectrum that characterizes SB.
Others:
Therapeutic area: Inflammatory diseases - Gastrointestinal diseases - Transplantation
