CellAct Pharma GmbH

On Monday, a Luxembourg venture fund announced their investment of an undisclosed amount into establishing a monoclonal antibody-focused biotech. The biotech has no website, but it has a name, a location and a CEO: T7 Therapeutics, based out of Wilmington, Delaware — headed by Caroline Fortier. The fund, TVM Capital Life Science, made the announcement in conjunction with Nekonal S.a.r.l, a Luxembourg biotech which helped play a role in some of the early science that T7 will be focusing on. The initial antibody T7 will target autoimmunity, and was initially discovered by Nalân Utku, founder and CEO of CellAct, during her time at Harvard Medical School — and humanized antibodies were later developed at Nekonal, where Utku is also CEO. While the initial antibody was found by Utku, she won’t be taking the helm at this company — that goes to Fortier, who is the former CEO of ImmunoRx. “The management team of T7 Therapeutics is excited to have the opportunity to further develop, to clinical proof-of-concept, this promising asset with the potential to treat chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases,” Fortier said in a statement. The first milestone that T7 Therapeutics plans to reach is to bring the antibody to a proof-of-concept study in psoriatic arthritis. The biotech plans to seek clinical validation in psoriatic arthritis — but is leaving the door open to potentially expand into various other indications. And according to a TVM statement, Eli Lilly is part of the deal with its autonomous R&D platform, Chorus, as an option for T7 to use. North Carolina CRO BioAgilytix is changing majority investors. The CRO announced this morning that private investment firm Cinven will get a majority stake, while current Brussels-based majority investor Cobepa will remain a minority investor. No financial details were given, nor what percentage of equity each company will have in BioAgilytix. The CRO was acquired by Cobepa and UK private equity firm GHO Capital in 2018. And Cinven’s investment will provide BioAgilytix with resources to meet demand for its bioanalytical services. Protego Biopharma raised $51 million in a Series A round — courtesy of co-lead investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vida Ventures and MPM Capital. According to a Protego statement this morning , the funds will advance new classes of disease-modifying drugs into the clinic and further expand Protego’s discovery platform. And as is par for the course in many Series financing rounds, Protego is adding venture execs to its board of directors. Shelley Chu with Lightspeed and Helen Kim at Vida will join the biotech’s board of directors — which Ed Hurwitz at MPM Capital is already on. “We are thrilled to partner with a world-class investor syndicate during this pivotal stage as we accelerate the science from research to potentially delivering impactful medicines for patients,” said Protego’s president and CEO Richard Labaudinière.