Vibrant Therapeutics has announced that it has raised $61m in new financing. The financing includes new investors Pfizer Ventures and Apricot Capital, bringing the total capital raised to $100m.
This funding allows Vibrant, a clinical-stage biotechnology company specialising in intelligent therapeutics, to advance its pipeline of intelligent therapeutics and develop a proprietary platform for drug design.
Michael Diem, senior managing partner and vice president, Worldwide Business Development (WWBD) at Pfizer Ventures, said: “Vibrant’s intelligently designed logic-gated approach to developing next-generation therapeutics represents a compelling opportunity, potentially in multiple therapeutic areas.”
The company also announced that its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its lead programme, VIB305, has been accepted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). VIB305 is a masked T-cell engager (TCE) prodrug designed to activate selectively within the microenvironment of a tumour while sparing the healthy tissues that surround it. It is intended to target epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-expressing solid tumours.
VIB305 is already being studied in phase 1 clinical trials in both Australia and China. The FDA’s acceptance of the IND application for VIB305 will also allow US clinical trials to be conducted.
“Vibrant represents the type of platform-driven company we seek to support – one that pairs innovative science with a clear path to global development,” added Arthur Qiang, managing partner at Apricot Capital. “The company’s logic-gated approach and rapid progress with VIB305 underscore its potential to meaningfully expand the therapeutic window in solid tumours.”