Vaccines firm SutroVax raised $60 million in a Series B financing round to support progress of its lead pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) into clinical trials and continue antigen discovery activities and early-stage development in other areas. The financing was led by new investors Frazier Healthcare Partners and Pivotal bioVenture Partners. All SutroVax’s existing investors participated in the Series B round, and separately invested an additional $4 million in SutroVax.
SutroVax has been spun out of antibody-based anticancer therapeutic firm Sutro Biopharma and has exclusive rights to the latter’s cell-free protein synthesis technology, Xpress CF™ platform, to develop high-potency conjugate vaccines. The Xpress CF platform makes it possible to conjugate antigens to precise positions on the carrier protein via the incorporation of non-native amino acids as conjugation anchors. SutroVax claims the technology allows the development of conjugate vaccines that demonstrate immunological and clinical benefits compared with current conjugate vaccines.The firm’s broad-spectrum PCV candidate is designed to offer expanded protection against circulating pneumococcal strains over that provided by existing adult and infant conjugate vaccines.
“The closing of this round, which was highly competitive and oversubscribed, is an important milestone for SutroVax and reflects the significant achievements we have made in developing a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine product candidate with the potential to disrupt a market with annual sales of over $7 billion,” said Grant Pickering, SutroVax CEO. “This financing enables us to advance our lead PCV program into the clinic and expand our R&D, clinical development, and manufacturing organizations.”
“We are pleased to make SutroVax the pioneer investment from Pivotal bioVenture Partners, our recently closed inaugural fund,” added Tracy Saxton, Ph.D., managing partner. “We are excited by the company's differentiated approach and ground-breaking progress in developing a potential best-in-class pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to provide coverage of circulating pathogenic strains outside of the current standard of care.”
SutroVax raised $22 million in its Series A financing round in July 2015.
