212Pb-NG001

New funds will go toward building out Artbio\'s network of manufacturers.\n Radiopharmaceuticals-focused Artbio has drawn in a $132 million series B to push its lead prostate cancer prospect through phase 2 trials and bolster its supply chain.The round was co-led by Sofinnova Investments and B Capital, both new investors, alongside an undisclosed life sciences fund that invested in the Massachusetts-based biotech previously, according to a July 29 release. Other new investors include the Qatar Investment Authority and Alexandria Venture Investments, which join prior patrons F-Prime, Omega Funds and Third Rock Ventures.The ART in Artbio comes from alpha radioligand therapies, a technique pioneered by the outfit’s scientific founders at the University of Oslo and Radium Hospital, both in Norway. The company maintains offices in Norway, Switzerland and the U.K., with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.The biotech\'s lead asset is AB001, a prospect for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer that is currently being tested in first-in-human studies. AB001 is designed to target prostate-specific membrane antigen, which is found on the surface of prostate cells but is often overexpressed when those cells become cancerous. The compound is intended to bathe cancer cells in lead-212 isotopes to irradiate and kill them.Artbio enlisted CDMO Nucleus RadioPharma to help manufacture its lead-212 therapies, including AB001, in May 2024. The new funds will also go toward building out Artbio’s network of manufacturers, the company said in the release, so the biotech will be prepared with enough AB001 to support clinical trials and, if all goes well, commercialization.Artbio’s radio assets consist of isotopes made using its patented AlphaDirect technique, which the company says enables flexible production from the benchtop rather than depending on traditional nuclear reactors or cyclotrons.“With a differentiated ART portfolio and integrated manufacturing approach, ARTBIO represents the ideal company that we look to partner with,” Maha Katabi, Ph.D., general partner at Sofinnova Investments, said in the release. “Equally impressive is their proprietary generator technology which is a game-changer for navigating around supply and production challenges for radioisotopes in today’s complex environment.”Artbio launched in June 2023 with $23 million in seed funding and had another $90 million in hand from a series A just six months later. The company’s five other programs are all preclinical for undisclosed targets in multiple solid tumors.

The money is flowing this month for radiopharmaceutical companies with a presence in Europe. The latest to snag a major funding round is Artbio, which uncorked a $132 million Series B on Tuesday to move its alpha radioligand candidate for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer into trials. The 60-employee biotech has set up shop in the US, Switzerland, Norway and the UK. Artbio’s round follows a $99 million Series B for Nuclidium and a $75.5 million Series A for Actithera , which operated as a one-man shop during a laborious fundraising process. Both European startups announced their fundraises earlier this month. As the radiopharma space continues to mature, biotech startups and legacy drugmakers alike are betting on different isotopes to tackle cancer. “The area is still relatively in its infancy. Sometimes we want to think that it’s much more established thanks to Pluvicto, which continues to make great progress, and with Lutathera,” Artbio CEO Emanuele Ostuni said, referring to Novartis’ drugs. “But there’s still a lot more that has to come in terms of multiple payloads, multiple carrier molecules.” He compared it to the bustling antibody-drug conjugate field, but said he hopes the radioligand space will “play out a bit faster.” Artbio’s scientific co-founders are well-established in the alpha radio field. Øyvind Bruland and Roy Larsen invented Xofigo, the alpha radiopharmaceutical marketed by Bayer for prostate cancer. Artbio secured its funds from new investors Sofinnova Investments and B Capital, as well as existing backers F-Prime Capital, Omega Funds and Third Rock Ventures. Sofinnova general partner Maha Katabi will join Artbio’s board. She was on the board of radiopharma startup RayzeBio when it sold to Bristol Myers Squibb for $4.1 billion in 2023. RayzeBio focused on actinium, but Artbio is developing a suite of programs around the isotope Pb-212. The company has a steady supply of thorium-228, which it turns into a pure form of Pb-212. Artbio has forged multiple supply and manufacturing agreements over the past few years to solidify its presence and prepare for clinical trials. “We see the thorium-228 supply chain actually expanding quite meaningfully in the long term, so we’re not overly concerned about source material,” Ostuni said. “So far, we’ve not had any issue accessing what we need for everything, as well as for all of our planned activities, which we’ve already factored into our supply agreements.” In a press release, Katabi referred to Artbio’s generator technology as a “game-changer for navigating around supply and production challenges for radioisotopes in today’s complex environment.” Pharma giants that have bought up radiopharma startups in recent years have poured big dollars into supply deals and manufacturing. This includes companies like Bristol Myers, Eli Lilly and Novartis. A Phase 1/2 of Artbio’s first candidate, AB001, is “very imminent,” Ostuni said, with plans to run the trial in Europe and the US. It has also conducted a tech transfer with AlphaGen Therapeutics so the Shanghai-based biotech can run trials of AB001 in China, Ostuni said. Artbio’s reach is now quite extensive, with AB001 being manufactured across three continents. Expansion to a fourth continent will soon be revealed, though the CEO declined to disclose more details. “We want to be able to show that the supply chain actually applies to multi-center, multi-continent, multi-state [operations], as opposed to just doing everything in one city and shipping across town,” Ostuni said. “That’s a way to run a trial, of course, but we want to be able to have a supply chain that is scalable — that can modify to multiple programs and multiple indications. “Some may say we’re making life harder for ourselves by doing it this way,” Ostuni continued, “but we think it’s what we need to see in order to convince ourselves that this has a future.” The biotech also has plans to put a peptide program for solid tumors into human trials. It in-licensed that program from 3B Pharmaceuticals last November. Meanwhile, in earlier-stage development, Artbio also has a partnership with Parabilis Medicines (formerly FogPharma). A third internal program will also move toward the clinic, Ostuni said.