MBrace Therapeutics has secured $85m in a Series B funding round to advance the clinical development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for oncology targets.
The financing round was led by TPG in a multi-sector impact approach, making investments through its life sciences fund, TPG Life Sciences Innovations, and through the Rise Fund.
Avidity Partners and Cowen Healthcare Investments were among the new investors while Series A investors included Venrock and Alta Partners.
XinThera CEO Christopher LeMasters and Avidity Partners’ Ng and Monal Mehta will become part of the board of directors of MBrace.
The investments secured by MBrace now total $110m.
The company will also use the funding to launch a first-in-human clinical trial of MBRC-101, its lead investigational ADC.
MBRC-101 acts on the EphA5 receptor tyrosine kinase, seen in cancer types such as breast, non-small cell lung and pancreatic.
MBrace Therapeutics president and CEO Isan Chen stated: “This investor syndicate shares our confidence in the potential of our novel ADC therapeutics pipeline to meaningfully impact the treatment of people with difficult-to-treat cancers.
“This additional capital will enable us to advance our clinical programmes, including entering a Phase I study with MBRC-101 before the end of the year and progressing our differentiated approach to the clinical development of our additional ADC pipeline candidates.”
