Memo Therapeutics Series B round will advance its COVID-19 asset to phase II clinical trials
We are delighted to announce that our portfolio company Memo Therapeutics (Redalpine Capital II) raised a CHF 14 million Series B round. Swisscanto Invest (Zürcher Kantonalbank) led the round and BERNINA BioInvest joined as another new investor. Existing investors investiere, Schroder Adveq and Redalpine participated significantly.
Memo Therapeutics AG (Memo) is an innovator in the field of antibody discovery and immune repertoire analysis. Over the course of an infection, a patient develops antibodies against the infectious agent. Memo exploits this fact by isolating and manufacturing antibodies from disease survivors for use in patients who cannot overcome such an infection on their own. With their Dropzylla® platform technology, Memo can identify therapeutic candidates from survivors’ blood within six weeks.
Memo impressively demonstrated their platform capabilities in June when they identified highly potent virus-neutralizing antibodies from COVID-19 survivors and already in August named a lead candidate, MTX-COVAB. With the proceeds of this round Memo plans to advance this candidate through to phase II clinical trials, including production of clinical-grade material. MTX-COVAB is a fully human, highly potent antibody isolated from convalescent COVID-19 donors that neutralizes all major known virus mutants. Memo agreed with regulatory authorities on a fast-track development plan for MTX-COVAB and plans to begin clinical studies in 2021.
Besides the COVID-19 asset, Memo also intends to finance the clinical development of its BKV-neutralizing antibody in renal transplant patients up to phase II. BKV is a viral infection posing a serious threat to transplant success.
"We are thrilled that with Swisscanto Invest and Bernina BioInvest we could attract two new renowned investors into our existing syndicate to support the clinical development of our two antiviral assets. We see this as validation of our antibody discovery approach and the huge future potential for the company," said Dr. Karsten Fischer, CEO of Memo Therapeutics AG.
Dr. Christoph Esslinger, CSO and co-founder of Memo Therapeutics AG added: "Our concept to discover antibodies from convalescent human donors within 3 weeks and to develop that idea within 9 months to first-in-human has been a huge effort by the entire team. It is very satisfying to now have the financial backing required to start implementing our clinical development plan."
Comments