Visterra, Inc., a Cambridge, MA – based clinical-stage biotechnology company, completed a Series C financing round raising a total of $46.7m, including a new extension totaling $23.6m.
The Series C financing round included existing investors – the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MRL Ventures Fund, Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd., Polaris Partners, Flagship Pioneering, Omega Funds, Cycad Group, Alexandria Venture Investments – and new investors Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., CTI Life Sciences and Allegheny Financial Group.
Led by Brian J. G. Pereira, M.D., President and CEO, Visterra is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that uses its novel Hierotope® platform to identify unique disease targets and to design and engineer precision antibody-based biological medicines against such targets that are not adequately addressed with conventional approaches.
The company, which had raised an initial $23.1m in June 2016, intends to use the funds to prepare for a planned Phase 2b clinical trial for its lead product candidate, VIS410, an antibody in development for the treatment of hospitalized patients with influenza A, regardless of the viral strain, and to advance VIS649, an antibody in development for the treatment of IgA nephropathy that has demonstrated promising results in animal models, to a Phase 1 clinical trial.
In addition, a portion of the proceeds will be used to further develop the company’s ViStar antibody Fc engineering capabilities, which are focused on developing novel modifications to the Fc region of an antibody to enhance half-life and improve effector function.
FinSMEs
05/10/2017