CAMBRIDGE, England, May 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc and Malin Corporation plc join the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Complete Series B Financing
Kymab, a leading monoclonal antibody biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has successfully raised an additional US$50 million to complete a US$90 million Series B financing. The US$50 million is being invested by Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc (LSE:WPCT,"Woodford") and Malin Corporation plc (ISE:MLC,"Malin"). This follows the first US$40 million Series B investment from the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The funds will enable Kymab to maximize the potential of its Kymouse™ platform and advance its proprietary pipeline of first-in-class therapeutic human monoclonal antibodies in areas of significant unmet medical need.
In association with the financing, Kymab has added two pre-eminent life science executives to the Board. G. Kelly Martin, former CEO of Elan Corporation, plc, and Director of Malin; and Dr. Adrian Howd, CEO of Malin.
David Chiswell, Chairman and interim CEO of Kymab, said: "We are delighted to welcome high quality investors of the calibre of Malin and Woodford to Kymab which support our goal to build Kymab into a sustainable biopharmaceutical company. The funds will be used to maximise the potential of the Kymab pipeline as we develop and commercialise monoclonal antibody medicines for difficult and novel drug targets."
Kelly Martin, Director of Malin, said: "Kymab has assembled a talented leadership team; an efficient and effective discovery platform with broad application demonstrated by the pipeline of product opportunities already established. We look forward to working with David and his team to fully realize the potential of the Company's programs, initially in immune-oncology and immunology, and the broader technology platform."
Adrian Howd, CEO of Malin, said: "We believe Kymab has one of the most comprehensive humanised transgenic antibody platforms underpinned by strong intellectual property. We are pleased to invest in a world leading antibody company."
Kymab is using the Kymouse™ transgenic human antibody platform to discover and develop fully human monoclonal antibody drugs. Recent data published in Nature Biotechnology demonstrate that the Kymouse™ technology yields an antibody library constituted from 100 trillion different antibodies. From this deep library rare high-quality antibodies can be selected and developed into therapeutics.
Antibodies are one of the best-selling classes of drugs today; five of the top ten best selling drugs are antibodies. This is because antibodies are natural products with exquisite specificity and potency, and generally have superior safety profiles. The challenge has been to capture the full human antibody repertoire and to recapitulate all its attributes.
Notes to Editors
About Kymab
Kymab is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of fully human monoclonal antibody drugs using its proprietary Kymouse antibody platform.
Kymouse has been designed to maximise the diversity of human antibodies produced in response to immunisation with antigens. Selecting from a broad diversity of fully human antibodies assures the highest probability of finding that rare drug candidate with best-in-class characteristics. Kymab is using the platform for its internal drug discovery programmes and in partnership with pharmaceutical companies. The first Kymouse partnership agreement was concluded with Novo Nordisk in 2013.
Founded in 2009, Kymab has raised over US$120m of equity financing which includes $90m Series B financing.
It has an experienced management team with a successful track record in drug discovery and development and has numerous therapeutic antibody discovery programmes in immune-oncology, auto-immunity and other areas.
About Malin Corporation Plc.
Malin is a newly established, Irish incorporated public limited company. Its purpose is to create shareholder value through the selective long-term application of capital and operational expertise to private, pre-IPO, pre-trade sale operating businesses in dynamic and fast growing segments of the life sciences industry. Malin will focus its efforts on acquiring majority or significant minority equity positions in companies with post investment valuations in the $10 million to $250 million range, and post-acquisition, on building optimal long term value. Further information can be found at http://www.malinplc.com
About Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc:
Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc is the record-breaking investment trust that aims to achieve long-term capital growth through investing in a portfolio consisting predominantly of early-stage and early-growth companies. The trust is managed by Woodford Investment Management (Woodford), the fast-growing asset management company built on a founding philosophy of transparency and simplicity. Further information can be found at https://woodfordfunds.com
Kymab, Kymouse, Kymab Access are trademarks of Kymab Limited.
For further information contact:
Kymab:
David Chiswell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Anne Hyland, Chief Financial Officer
Tel: +44(0)1223-833301, Email: media@kymab.com
Hume Brophy:
Mary Clark, Supriya Mathur and Hollie Vile
Tel: +44(0)20-3440-5653, Email: kymab@humebrophy.com
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