Date: 2015-05-06
Type of information: Series B financing round
Company: Kymab (UK)
Investors: The Wellcome Trust (UK) the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (USA) Woodford Patient Capital Trust (UK) Malin Corporation (UK)
Amount: US $90 million (€80.45 million)
Funding type: series B financing round
Planned used: The funds will enable Kymab to maximise the potential of its Kymouse™ platform and advance its proprietary pipeline of first-in-class therapeutic human monoclonal antibodies in areas of significant unmet medical need. Kymab will also collaborate with the Gates Foundation and its partners on vaccine antigen discovery research and development with an initial focus on malaria and HIV.
Kymab is using the Kymouse™ transgenic human antibody platform to discover and develop fully human monoclonal antibody drugs. Recent data published in Nature Biotechnology demonstrate that the Kymouse™ technology yields an antibody library constituted from 100 trillion different antibodies.
Others: * On May 6, 2015, Kymab, a leading monoclonal antibody biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has successfully raised an additional US$50 million to complete a US$90 million Series B financing. The US$50 million is being invested by Woodford Patient Capital Trust and Malin Corporation. This follows the first US$40 million Series B investment from the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. * On May 16, 2014, Kymab announced it has successfully raised US$40 million in a Series B financing. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joins existing investor, the Wellcome Trust, each investing US$20 million.
In association with the financing, Kymab has added two pre-eminent life science executives to the Board. G. Kelly Martin, former CEO of Elan Corporation, plc, and Director of Malin; and, Dr. Adrian Howd, CEO of Malin.
Kymab is focused on the discovery and development of fully human monoclonal antibody drugs using its proprietary Kymouse™ transgenic antibody platform. The first Kymouse™ antibody discovery agreement
was concluded with Novo Nordisk in 2013. Founded in 2009, Kymab raised USD30m of equity financing in 2010 from the investment division of the Wellcome Trust.
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
