Date: 2016-01-11
Type of information: Series B financing round
Company: AB2 Bio (Switzerland)
Investors: undisclosed new and existing investors
Amount: CHF 21 million ($ 21 million - € 19.3 million)
Funding type: series B financing round
Planned used: The proceeds will be used to complete AB2 Bio\'s current and ongoing Phase II clinical trial with Interleukin-18 Binding Protein (IL-18BP) in Adult onset Still’s Disease, to conduct and complete a pivotal clinical trial of IL-18BP in patients carrying NLRC4 mutations and to broaden the company’s pipeline. AB2 Bio expects to report results from the Phase II clinical trial in Adult onset Still’s Disease in 2016. This ongoing clinical trial, is an open-label, multicenter, dose-escalating Phase II study with the primary objectives to investigate the safety, tolerability, and early signs of efficacy of subcutaneous administrations of IL-18BP in AoSD patients.
IL-18BP is a human protein with a high affinity for IL-18, a major inflammatory cytokine. In patients with certain inflammatory diseases, the IL-18/IL-18BP balance is disrupted, resulting in high levels of free and active IL-18, which in turn leads to pathological inflammation. Administration of AB2 Bio’s exogenous recombinant human IL-18BP restores the IL-18/IL-18BP balance, removing free IL-18 and thereby reducing inflammation. AB2 Bio has developed the first and unique proprietary assay detecting free IL-18 allowing the identification of clinical entities that are driven by free IL-18. As patients with high levels of free IL-18 can be identified, the clinical impact of treatment with IL-18BP will be maximized. The patients unlikely to respond to the treatment will not be unnecessarily exposed to ineffective medicines. Recently, single point mutations in the NLRC4 gene have been identified. These genetic and gain of function mutations give rise to severe, life threatening systemic inflammation as they are associated with extremely high levels of IL-18, the therapeutic target of AB2 Bio. In Summer 2015, AB2 Bio successfully treated, on a compassionate use basis, a critically ill baby girl carrying an NLRC4 mutation and with major systemic inflammation with its experimental drug, IL-18BP. In September 2015, it was reported that the patient has entered into full remission. In November, 2015, this case report was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. Building on this proof of concept, AB2 Bio will start in 2016 a pivotal Phase III clinical trial with its experimental drug IL-18BP in patients carrying a mutation of the NOD-like receptor C4 (NLRC4) gene .
Others: * On January 11, 2016, AB2 Bio Ltd, specialized in developing innovative therapies for the treatment of severe systemic inflammatory diseases, announced the successful completion of its Series B financing round. The company raised CHF 21
million. The successful financing of CHF 21 million has been subscribed not only by existing investors but also by new investors who have now committed a total of over CHF 41 million in two financing rounds since the foundation of the company in 2010.
Therapeutic area: Inflammatory diseases
