After Sanofi paid $600 million in cash to acquire Dren Bio’s bispecific last year, the biotech has secured a hefty financing to fund late-stage development and commercial preparations for its lead asset.
Dren Bio has raised $350 million to advance its CD94-targeting monoclonal antibody toward potential approval in rare blood cancers.
The California biotech will use the new funds to bankroll late-stage development and planned regulatory and commercial activities for its lead therapy dibotatug. Also known as DR-01, the antibody is designed to deplete pathogenic cells in rare blood cancers and other serious conditions.
The $350 million oversubscribed round was co-led by newly launched biotech venture capital firm Juvia Group and global VC Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to a Thursday news release.
While Dren didn’t denote what series the financing was, the hefty haul is a far cry from the biotech’s last fundraise—a $65 million series B in 2022. That followed a $60 million series A two years before, in October 2020.
Beyond venture financing, Dren has drawn investment from some of the industry’s biggest names through deals with Sanofi, Novartis and Pfizer. Last year, Sanofi paid the biotech $600 million upfront to acquire DR-0201, now known as SAR448501, a targeted bispecific myeloid cell engager (MCE) designed to induce deep B cell depletion. Dren could also reel in up to $1.3 billion in potential development and milestone payments related to the deal.
The newest cash infusion will help Dren advance dibotatug, which is being tested in a Phase 1/2 trial for cytotoxic T cell lymphoma (CTL) and large granular lymphocytic leukemia (LGLL)—two rare blood cancers with high unmet need, according to Dren. The trial has a primary readout slated for this December, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. Dren has the hematologic malignancy program listed in its online pipeline as being in registrational development.
The biotech is also working on expanding dibotatug into new indications, such as aplastic anemia and bone marrow failure syndromes, plus autoimmune diseases.
Dren has also earmarked some of the new funds to fuel the rest of the biotech’s pipeline, including programs stemming from its targeted myeloid engager and phagocytosis platform. The multispecific antibody tech helped create DR-0201, the MCE acquired by Sanofi in 2025.
Dren’s $350 million round is one of biotech’s largest private financings of the year so far, falling behind Isomorphic Labs’ $2.1 billion series B; Earendil Labs’ $787 million fundraise; NewLimit’s $435 million series C; Beeline Medicines’ $426.3 million series A, plus extension; and Chai Discovery’s $400 million series C.
