A London biotech raises $114M to hone a new ADC payload

2024-07-08

A London-based biotechnology company is capitalizing on investor interest in antibody-drug conjugates for cancer, announcing Sunday the completion of a Series A round that raised $114 million.

Myricx Bio, which launched in 2019, claims its approach to antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, could offer advantages over existing treatments by using a new kind of “payload” to attack tumors.

ADCs have emerged as a research hot spot in recent years. They’re built from a monoclonal antibody, a precise dose of a toxin and a chemical linker pairing the two. More than a dozen ADCs are approved by U.S. regulators as cancer treatments, and over 100 programs are in clinical development, according to estimates. While early iterations of the drugs were effective in destroying tumor cells, developers’ next step has been dialing in the drugs’ precision and safety.

“All ADCs come through looking compelling in terms of potency in preclinical models, the challenges are often how they're differentiated,” said Robin Carr, Myricx’s CEO.

Myricx is building its ADCs around N-myristoyltransferase inhibitors, compounds that block an enzyme that’s important to cancer cell survival. Last year, the company licensed antibodies from two Chinese companies, Biocytogen and WuXi Biologics.

Carr said that, in preclinical models, drugs using NMTi payloads were more effective than other types of ADCs. Furthermore, they showed activity in cancer models designed to be resistant to ADCs based around a toxin called topoisomerase inhibitors, like AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sanyko’s Enhertu as well as Gilead’s Trodelvy.

The biotech was co-founded by a group of British researchers that included Exscientia’s chief research officer Andy Bell, former GSK executive Roberto Solari and former Myricx chief scientific officer Ed Tate. Launched with £4.5 million in seed financing, Myricx initially licensed its technology from Imperial College London, where Tate and Solari were professors. Carr came to Myricx from GSK, where he was an executive overseeing the company’s small molecule and platform research.

Initially, Myricx planned to develop NMTi inhibitors as standalone small molecule drugs for cancer. But, while having conversations with investors, the company pivoted to consider NMTi inhibitors as an ADC payload.

Myricx’s early backers included Sofinnova Partners and Brandon Capital Partners. Investors Novo Holdings and Abingworth co-led its Series A, with participation from British Patient Capital, Cancer Research Horizons Cancer Research Horizons, Eli Lilly, Brandon Capital and Sofinnova. The $114 million will go toward funding two proof-of-concept studies, as well as adding about 15 employees, Carr said.

“Not many U.K. and European institutes’ spinouts get out there with a Series A, so we’re super pleased,” Carr said.

Since January 2022, investors have put more than $2.7 billion into ADC companies, according to investment firm Piper Sandler. Notable private raises include TORL BioTherapeutics' $158 million Series B financing last year and Tubulis' $139 million Series B2 in March.

ADC companies are on pharmaceutical companies’ radar, too: AbbVie spent $10 billion last year to acquire ImmunoGen, while more recently GenMab bought ProfoundBio for $1.8 billion.

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