Kivu Bioscience – a biotech company developing next-generation antibody-drug conjugates to deliver advanced therapeutics – announced the closing of a $92 million Series A financing round led by Novo Holdings, with participation from Gimv, Red Tree Venture Capital, HealthCap and existing investors BioGeneration Ventures, M Ventures, and Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM). This funding round will advance multiple oncology programs in the clinic.
Kivu utilizes the proprietary Synaffix site-specific linker-payload technology to deliver next-generation ADC therapeutics. And the GlycoConnect technology, which couples the linker specifically to asparagine-297 and offers a clean, highly homogenous product.
This technology offers a clear manufacturing advantage over other conjugation techniques. It also produces a more stable ADC, significantly reducing off-target side effects. This approach widens the therapeutic window, improving patients’ safety profiles. Addressing the discontinuation and dose-reduction rates seen with ADCs will establish Kivu’s place in treating solid tumors.
Kivu’s assets are in late-stage preclinical studies that target areas of high unmet medical need. The company’s platform is differentiated by its superior ability to avoid the issues seen with currently marketed ADCs and address key limitations related to stability, therapeutic precision, and delivery. The company is expected to begin Phase 1 trials for its lead candidate in 2025.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re excited to have the backing of this top-tier syndicate, who share our vision for developing kinder, gentler ADC therapies that are more effective and safer for cancer patients. Our next-generation ADCs address key limitations of current treatments, particularly by engineering stable ADCs we have the potential to reduce off-target side effects which in turn widens the therapeutic window. This funding allows us to accelerate the development of our Topo1i-based ADC pipeline to the clinic, where we plan to quickly differentiate Kivu’s products from past endeavors. We are inspired by patients and driven by data to accelerate transformative medicines.”
-Mohit Trikha, Ph.D., President and Chief Operating Officer of Kivu Bioscience
“ADCs are an established modality for treating cancer, but tolerability issues limit the pace of advancement in the space. The early data from Kivu suggested superior stability of the constructs, clearly pointing toward targets that have been pursued by earlier generations of ADCs, but which failed due to high rates of drug discontinuation. That data in the hands of this outstanding management team tells an incredibly compelling story – one we are excited to support. We see tremendous opportunity for the Kivu pipeline to produce a new generation of targeted therapies as best-in-class novel ADCs across a broad range of cancers.”
-Daniel O’Connell, M.D., Ph.D., Partner, Novo Holdings
