DT-001

BioGeneration Ventures (BGV) said Thursday that it closed the BGV V fund at €150 million ($168 million) and that it plans to invest in around 12 early-stage European companies focused on drug discovery and development. According to BGV, the fund was oversubscribed with "strong demand" from existing backers such as Eli Lilly, Novo Holdings and Bristol Myers Squibb, as well as new investors, all of whom are either large financial institutions or global life sciences companies."We are delighted that several leading global pharmaceutical companies share our conviction in the potential of early-stage European biotechs by investing in BGV V," said managing partner Edward van Wezel. He explained that we are "positioned to support our portfolio companies and their founders with the capital and expertise they need to progress projects from discovery to clinical proof-of-concept."Largest fund yetBGV said the fund – its largest to date, bringing its total fundraise so far to over €400 million ($449 million) – is dedicated to early-stage ventures, company creation and seeking out therapeutic innovations that arise from "differentiated science and are supported by convincing experimental data."The company says its portfolio successes include Acerta Pharma, which developed the blood cancer treatment Calquence and was subsequently acquired by AstraZeneca in 2021. More recently, BGV-backed biotech Synaffix, which focuses on antibody-drug conjugates, was bought by Lonza for €160 million ($180 million).BGV's current portfolio includes Azafaros, whose candidate focusing on certain rare lysosomal storage disorders in children recently entered Phase II; and Dualyx, which raised €40 million ($45 million) to progress the autoimmune programme DT-001, as well as its pipeline of Treg candidates. Meanwhile, Complement Therapeutics, which received its initial funding from BGV in 2021, recently raised €72 million ($81 million) in a Series A round to continue clinical development of its lead product CTx001, an AAV gene therapy for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to dry age-related macular degeneration.