Zenas BioPharma closed on a Series B financing round worth $118 million, which it will use to advance its autoimmune candidate obexelimab into a global Phase III trial later this year.
Zenas BioPharma closed on a Series B financing round worth $118 million, which it will use to advance obexelimab, its autoimmune candidate, into a global Phase III trial later this year.
As the Mass.-based company’s lead compound, obexelimab is being developed to treat IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD). The drug is a bifunctional antibody that targets CD19 and FcƳRIIB, which inhibits B-cell activity.
IgG4-RD is increasingly being viewed as an autoimmune disease. It is a multi-organ disease, usually affecting the pancreas, bile ducts, lacrimal glands and major salivary glands. In some patients, IgG4 blood levels are 20 or 30 times higher than the upper normal limits.
It often presents as a mass that mimics cancer, according to the American College of Rheumatology. Patients often undergo surgery to remove what was believed to be a tumor, before being diagnosed with IgG4-RD. It is also often linked to allergic symptoms, such as asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis.
Zenas acquired the rights to obexelimab from Xencor in November 2021.
At the time, Bassil Dahiyat, Ph.D., president and CEO of Xencor, highlighted the compound’s unique potential.
“Obexilimab’s highly potent and broad blockade of B-cell activation - without depleting B cells - differentiates it from other B-cell targeting therapies, and it has demonstrated disease-modifying activity in settings where B-cell inhibition is a proven strategy,” he said.
In August, Zenas received approval in China to run a Phase I/II trial of ZB001 for the treatment of Thyroid Eye Disease. ZB001 is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R).
The funds raised will also be used to advance Zenas’s other autoimmune programs into the clinic in 2023.
Joe Farmer, Zenas’s president and COO, told BioSpace that in addition to the Phase III trial for obexelimab this quarter, “We have also initiated a Phase I trial of ZB001, an insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R) monoclonal antibody being developed for the potential treatment of patients with thyroid eye disease (TED) in China, and we plan to join the global Phase III study to be commenced by our partner, Viridian Therapeutics, in 2023.”
He added, “We also expect to initiate Phase I proof-of-concept studies for each of our other pipeline programs.”
The Series B was led by Enavate Sciences. New investors included Longitude Capital, Vivo Capital and others, with participation from existing investors.
As part of the financing, Jim Boylan, CEO of Enavate, Patrick Enright, co-founder and managing director of Longitude and Hongbo Lu, managing partner of Vivo, joined Zenas’s board of directors.
In a statement, Boylan said Enavate is “thrilled to support Zenas” as it executes its plans for the immune-based therapies in its pipeline.
Zenas launched in March 2021, founded and initially funded by Tellus BioVentures and Fairmount Funds Management, with backing from Quan Capital, WuXi Biologics Healthcare Ventures and Wellington Management.
