Araris founders
We are pleased to announce that our portfolio company Araris Biotech AG (RAC IV), raised USD 24m in a financing round, bringing the total funds raised to USD 40m.
The round was co-led by existing investors Pureos Bioventures and 4Bio Capital with new investors Wille AG (Switzerland) and the Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation (USA) joining the round. Existing investors VI Partners, Schroders Capital, btov Partners and Redalpine Venture Partners participated as well. Damir Illich from Wille AG and Sophie Allauzen, Ph.D. from Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation will join Araris’ board as observers.
With the proceeds of this round, Araris will further develop and advance its Antibody-Drug conjugates (ADCs), towards clinical development.
The ADCs are based on Araris’ proprietary ADC platform technology: Today, one major limitation of ADCs is that the linker between antibody and drug lacks stability in the human body leading to a premature loss of the payload. This often results in systemic toxicity and limits broader adoption among patients. Araris’ linker platform addresses this limitation offering a linker that is stable in serum and under stress conditions. Also, Araris’ linker technology allows for the attachment of any payload to ‘off the shelf’ antibodies without the need for prior antibody engineering or reduction, significantly reducing the time required to generate new ADCs.
“We’re thrilled to have support from this group of investors and look forward to using these proceeds to support our efforts of advancing our ADC candidates toward the clinic,” said Philipp Spycher, Ph.D., chief executive officer at Araris Biotech. “Our linker technology has enabled us to create ADCs with a significantly improved therapeutic index in a single step that have shown favorable biophysical properties in preclinical studies to date, and an ability to address the limitations of current ADCs on the market. This fundraising will allow us to move closer to our goal of bringing these therapies to patients in need of better treatment options.”
For more information, please visit Araris’ website.