NBE-Therapeutics Closes USD 22M Series C Financing Round

NBE-Therapeutics AG today announces the closing of a USD 22M Series C financing round, led by its existing shareholders Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and the PPF Group and with participation from all private shareholders. The funds will enable NBE to advance development of the lead asset NBE-002 through early clinical trials and to further strengthen the development team, management and board of the company.

NBE-Therapeutics’ best in class iADC™ platform creates highly potent and safe immune-stimulatory ADCs with an anthracycline payload, inducing a long-lasting immunological anti-tumor effect. It has shown unprecedented preclinical efficacy, as well as safety in multiple pipeline programs. The GLP tox study for the lead program NBE-002 against the ROR1 target has been successfully completed, supporting the initiation of a first in man study. GMP manufacturing of the clinical batch has also been successfully completed. The first-in-human study with NBE-002 is expected to commence by mid-2020, focusing on triple negative breast cancer and lung cancer, as well as including other solid cancer indications and lymphomas.

Dr. Ulf Grawunder, CEO and founder of NBE-Therapeutics commented "We are very proud of our achievements in developing NBE-002 toward IND filing. This has been recognized by our existing shareholders who, with this financing, show their continued commitment to NBE-Therapeutics. This financing will enable us to further develop our lead asset NBE-002 into clinic and take the next step in our goal to create valuable treatments for cancer patients. We highly value the trust our current shareholders have placed in both our technology platform and lead iADC program, through which we have been able to develop highly effective oncology treatments".

"NBE Therapeutics has progressed nicely over the last few years and is now entering its next phase, becoming a leading clinical-stage ADC company" mentions  Dr. Jens Hennecke, board member of NBE and representative of the PPF Group. "The broad support by existing shareholders in this financing round is a testimony to the great promise of NBE’s NBE-002 in becoming a leading cancer treatment in the future."

Dr. Detlev Mennerich, board member of NBE and Director at BIVF further comments: "BIVF is very happy to further support NBE-Therapeutics, being one of the early investors in the company. NBE has been able to develop an ADC platform that overcomes all historical challenges in the field and is now ready to generate a clinical precedent by showing superiority over other ADC strategies, which would then allow full leverage of the underlying iADC technology."

About NBE-Therapeutics

NBE-Therapeutics is a privately-owned Swiss biotech company based in Basel and founded in 2012 with the vision of developing next-generation immune-stimulatory antibody drug conjugate (iADC™) products. NBE advances its products to clinical proof of concept with the goal of improving treatment options for cancer patients. The company leverages proprietary platforms covering all aspects of ADC development: its Transpo-mAb Display™ technology for antibody discovery, its SMAC-Technology™ for site-specific payload conjugation of toxins to antibodies and a novel highly effective and immune-stimulatory anthracycline-based toxin platform. The company is financially backed by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (D), the PPF Group and Novo Holdings (DK) as institutional investors, and by additional Swiss, German and Dutch private investors.

About Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund GmbH 

Created in 2010, the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund GmbH (BIVF) invests in groundbreaking therapeutics-focused biotechnology companies to drive innovation in biomedical research. BIVF is searching for significant enhancements in patient care through pioneering science and its clinical translation by building long-term relationships with scientists and entrepreneurs. BIVF’s focus is to target unprecedented therapeutic concepts addressing high medical needs in immuno-oncology, regenerative medicine, infectious diseases and digital health. These may include novel platform technologies to address so far undruggable targets, new generation vaccines and/or new biological entities, such as oncolytic virotherapy.
BIVF takes an active role with its portfolio companies – delivering significant added value through its own extensive drug discovery, scientific and managerial expertise. BIVF has EUR 250 million under management and currently supervises a portfolio of more than 25 companies.

About PPF

PPF Group invests into multiple market segments such as financial services, telecommunications, biotechnology, real estate and mechanical engineering. The reach of PPFGroup spans from Europe to North Amecia and across Asia. PPF Group owns assets exceeding EUR 47 billion (as at 30 June 2019).

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