J&J leads $90M series C for Bright Peak to push immunoconjugate into clinic
11 Jun 2024
ImmunotherapyIND
Bright Peak Therapeutics has raised $90 million in a series C financing round to take its lead programme BPT567 into clinical trials. The funding will enable the biotech to investigate whether its first-in-class immunoconjugate can expand the reach of PD-1 blockade into new indications and potentially revive responses in patients who have stopped benefiting from current immunotherapies.
Bright Peak plans to initiate a Phase I/IIa study evaluating BPT567 in solid tumours during the second half of this year. "We are now well positioned to bring much needed innovation to the field of anti PD-1 immuno-oncology," said CEO Fredrik Wiklund.
The round was led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, with participation from new investors Venrock, KB Investment, and Northleaf Capital Partners, as well as existing backers including founding investor Versant Ventures.
In an interview with FirstWord, Wiklund acknowledged the high bar for attracting capital, particularly in the preclinical setting. "Companies… need to have unique, differentiated, and potentially high-impact programmes that can be practice-changing. You'll have to be able to make that case [to investors]," he said. "Fortunately, BPT567 ticked all those boxes."
Unmet needs in PD-1 blockade
While first-generation PD-1 inhibitors like Merck & Co.'s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) – now generating $25 billion annually – have been very successful, Wiklund noted that significant unmet needs remain. "Almost half the patients that get diagnosed with cancers get diagnosed with tumours where PD-1s are not approved," he said. "The majority of patients that do get treated with PD-1, unfortunately, do not respond or ultimately progress. Very few patients get a functional cure with PD-1. So, what do we do with these patients that are not currently served by PD-1s?"
BPT567 works by simultaneously blocking the PD-1 checkpoint while delivering a targeted immuno-stimulatory payload – IL-18 – optimised for functionality. "[IL-18] orchestrates the immune response in several ways," Wiklund explained. "Probably the most important for our molecule is its ability to expand and activate and specifically target CD8 T-cells within the tumour microenvironment… By targeting these double positive PD-1/IL-18 receptor positive T-cells in cis, we drive incremental synergistic efficacy. That's what we've seen in our preclinical studies."
The upcoming Phase I/IIa study will explore whether BPT567 can extend the utility of PD-1 blockade into new indications, particularly less T-cell-infiltrated "cold" tumours where current therapies have limited activity. Bright Peak will also investigate whether BPT567 can benefit patients in the post-checkpoint setting and if it can raise the bar in approved indications where existing PD-1 drugs are already approved, but ultimately not very effective.
Three-year runway
The series C proceeds will give Bright Peak about three years of runway during which the biotech "can…really focus on executing the clinical trials and generating the most compelling clinical data set that we can," said Wiklund. "If our science prevails from here, of course, we'll look to potential partnerships, potential equity or a mix of both to continue to advance the programme."
Wiklund also indicated that investors may have been attracted by the breadth of Bright Peak's platform and intriguing features, such as its "off-the-shelf" capability to build on existing antibodies so as to make them multimodal. "PD-1 is one example, but it doesn't stop there," he said. "We could start with a T-cell engager or a bispecific molecule or another functional antibody and use that as a basis of our immunoconjugate, and then conjugate various payloads on top of those modalities."
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