Primrose Bio has raised a growth financing round led by new investor Signet Healthcare Partners to expand its technology to manufacture next-generation biologics. Existing investors 1315 Capital, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, LDV Partners and Agent Capital also participated in the financing.
As part of the investment, Signet founding partner and managing director James Gale has joined Primrose Bio’s Board of Directors.
Primrose provides technologies designed to improve the production of biologic medicines, engineered proteins, mRNA products and vaccines.
The company plans to use the financing to expand the commercial reach and capabilities of three core technology platforms.
Its Pfenex Expression Technology is a scalable microbial expression platform designed to support efficient, high-yield manufacturing of complex engineered proteins. The technology is already used in six approved biologic products.
Primrose’s Prima RNApols platform consists of proprietary RNA polymerases designed to support consistent and scalable mRNA manufacturing and is available in research-use-only and GMP-grade formats.
The company’s PeliCRM197 platform provides a validated carrier protein used in multiple approved vaccines, also available in research and GMP formats.
Primrose plans to use the new capital to broaden adoption of the technologies, expand their capabilities and help customers move therapeutic and vaccine programs toward clinical development.
KEY QUOTES:
“This financing marks an important next step for Primrose and reflects confidence in our technologies, team and commercial opportunity. As the engineering of biologic and nucleic acid medicines advances, developers need more robust production systems that also improve quality, yield, speed, scalability and cost. This capital will help us broaden adoption, enhance capabilities and accelerate customers moving therapeutic and vaccine programs forward toward clinical trials.”
Andrew Burch, Chief Executive Officer of Primrose Bio
“Signet sees a compelling opportunity across Primrose’s portfolio. Having partnered with The Dow Chemical Company to establish Pfenex Inc. in 2009, we have seen the platform’s commercial value firsthand. Primrose is building on that foundation with further advances in Pfenex technology as well as Prima RNApols and PeliCRM197. We are pleased to invest in this next phase of growth and support the team as they scale the business and help more customers improve manufacturing performance across multiple therapeutic modalities.”
James Gale, Founding Partner and Managing Director of Signet Healthcare Partners
