Leyden Laboratories announced it has raised $70 million in funding to advance its Mucosal Protection Platform. This funding round was supported by co-leads ClavystBio and Polaris Partners, with participation by Qiming Venture Partners and existing investors. And the company’s syndicate of VC investors now includes GV (formerly Google Ventures), Casdin Capital, F-Prime Capital, ClavystBio, Polaris Partners, Qiming Venture Partners, Invus, Byers Capital / Brook Byers, Bluebird Ventures, and Softbank Vision Fund 2.
The company’s non-vaccine approach leverages broadly protective intranasally administered antibodies to free people from the threat of respiratory viruses, such as influenza and coronaviruses.
The proceeds from the funding round will support further development of the Company’s pipeline aimed at protecting against respiratory viruses such as influenza and coronaviruses. Leyden Labs is advancing a novel class of broadly protective nasal sprays, including its PanFlu candidate containing the monoclonal antibody CR9114, which is now in development for influenza prophylaxis.
This funding will support the initiation of human efficacy studies of PanFlu, advancements in the company’s Mucosal Protection Platform research, and other pipeline activities.
Along with this financing, the company announced the acquisition of CoV Biotechnology, a Singapore-based biotech company with assets developed by Linfa Wang, a professor of emerging infectious diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School. This deal adds to Leyden Labs’ research and development efforts, which include pandemic preparedness and other partnership initiatives in Asia.
KEY QUOTES:
“This strong support from investors validates our approach to providing broad, universal protection against current and future viral outbreaks. At Leyden Labs, we’re working to stop infections early by delivering antibody-based formulations directly to the nasal mucosa – eliminating the threat of respiratory viruses directly at the very gate through which they enter. The timing of this fundraising is critical – in light of recent avian flu (H5N1) developments, we feel even more urgency to execute on our mission to protect people against existing and new viruses.”
– Koenraad Wiedhaup, co-founder and chief executive officer of Leyden Labs
“We are pleased to partner with Leyden Labs to advance the mission of protecting the world from the burden of known and new respiratory viruses. This demonstrates our strong commitment to working with world-class scientists and passionate leaders at Leyden Labs to accelerate the development of its novel technology and pipeline to make a global health impact.”
– Khoo Shih, chief executive officer of ClavystBio, who joins the Supervisory Board of Leyden Labs
