Zanidatamab

Iambic Therapeutics\' oversubscribed funding round comes after an eventful month for the company.\n Busy Iambic Therapeutics has picked up more than $100 million in new funding as it looks to advance its portfolio of AI-discovered therapeutics.The oversubscribed funding round comes on the heels of an eventful month for the AI-driven biotech, with co-founder and CEO Tom Miller, Ph.D., considering the new financing as a “testament to the exceptional work of the Iambic team,” he said in a Nov. 10 press release. Iambic recently linked up with Jazz Therapeutics to study its brain-penetrant HER2 small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) prospect IAM1363 in combination with Jazz’s HER2-targeted bispecific antibody Ziihera (zanidatamab). Jazz agreed to provide its Ziihera at no cost as Iambic plans to study the combo in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who have previously been treated with Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s Enhertu.The partnership came about as Iambic presented early-phase clinical data for IAM1363 as a monotherapy at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) annual meeting in Berlin. In its presentation, the biotech showed that the prospect was linked with anti-tumor activity in patients with HER2-mutant NSCLC and HER2-positive breast and gastric cancers, plus other indications that don’t yet have approved HER2-directed TKIs or antibodies. IAM1363 was designed to overcome the limitations of current HER2-directed therapies and was the first of Iambic’s programs to hit the clinic last year.Now, the biotech is riding the momentum with plans to advance two other programs.“We look forward to continuing Iambic\'s progress and anticipate our KIF18A and CDK2/4 programs entering the clinic as well as additional discovery and technology enablement collaborations in the near term,” Miller said in the recent release.A collection of new and existing investors contributed “balanced support” to the funding round, including Abingworth, Everbright Biofund, Illumina Ventures, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Qatar Investment Authority, Regeneron Ventures and Sequoia, to name a few. In 2023, Iambic raised $100 million to support its pipeline in a series B round, following a $53 million series A round in 2021.Meanwhile, the biotech is in line for up to $25 million through a collaboration with Revolution Medicines. Under the deal, announced in July, Revolution has access to \"Iambic’s industry-leading NeuralPLexer model for protein structure prediction,\" according to the deal announcement.

Iambic Therapeutics continues to find success with its AI-driven drug discovery platform. After posting positive early data for its brain-penetrant HER2-targeting tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) IAM1363 at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) meeting and signing a clinical collaboration with Jazz Pharmaceuticals, the biotech has now raised $100 million to keep the ball rolling. The oversubscribed financing adds to Iambic's series B, which closed at more than $150 million last year. "We look forward to continuing Iambic's progress and anticipate our KIF18A and CDK2/4 programmes entering the clinic as well as additional discovery and technology enablement collaborations in the near term," said CEO and co-founder Tom Miller in a company release.The latest round saw participation from new and existing backers including Abingworth, Alexandria Venture Investments, Alumni Ventures, ARK, Ascenta, Catalio, Everbright Biofund, Freeflow Ventures, Illumina Ventures, Mubadala, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Qatar Investment Authority, Regeneron Ventures, Sequoia, Tao Capital Partners, Terra Magnum Capital Partners and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.'Meaningful clinical impact'Iambic's presentation at ESMO featured data from a Phase I/Ib trial in patients with advanced HER2 cancers. According to the company, IAM1363 showed anti-tumour activity in heavily pretreated patients, including those with HER2-mutant NSCLC, HER2-positive breast and gastric cancers, HER2-mutant renal cell cancer and HER2-amplified NSCLC and ovarian cancer.Best overall response data demonstrated a partial response rate of 28% in participants with measurable systemic disease who received daily ≥960-mg doses of the TKI, and a 33% rate in those with measurable intracranial tumours. "This milestone not only reinforces the potential of IAM1363 as a best-in-class TKI for HER2-driven cancers but also validates the power of our platform to translate model predictions into meaningful clinical impact," Miller said at the time.Following the readout, Iambic linked up with Jazz Pharmaceuticals to test IAM1363 in combination with the latter's HER2-targeted bispecific antibody, Ziihera (zanidatamab). Iambic will launch a new cohort within its Phase I/Ib study to evaluate the pair with chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer that have previously been treated with Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan).Iambic has attracted several other partners. Last year, it teamed up with Lundbeck on AI-powered development efforts for neurological diseases, and in July, inked an oncology discovery deal with Revolution Medicines. The biotech also released an updated version of its AI-powered Enchant model in May, which it said can forecast the likelihood of clinical advancement for early-stage drug candidates.