On May 6, 2015 Kymab ,a leading monoclonal antibody biopharmaceutical company reported that US$50 million is being invested by Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc (LSE:WPCT,"Woodford") and Malin Corporation plc (ISE:MLC, "Malin") (Press release, Kymab, MAY 6, 2015, View Source [SID1234537013]). The additional investment follows the first US$40 million Series B investment from the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to complete a US$90 million Series B financing.
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The funds will enable Kymab to maximize the potential of its Kymouse platform and advance its proprietary pipeline of first-in-class therapeutic human monoclonal antibodies in areas of significant unmet medical need.
In association with the financing, Kymab has added two pre-eminent life science executives to the Board. G. Kelly Martin, former CEO of Elan Corporation, plc, and Director of Malin; and, Dr. Adrian Howd, CEO of Malin.
"We believe Kymab has one of the most comprehensive humanised transgenic antibody platforms underpinned by strong intellectual property," explained Adrian Howd, CEO of Malin. "We are pleased to invest in a world leading antibody company."
Kymab is using the Kymouse transgenic human antibody platform to discover and develop fully human monoclonal antibody drugs. Recent data published in Nature Biotechnology demonstrate that the KymouseTM technology yields an antibody library constituted from 100 trillion different antibodies. From this deep library rare high-quality antibodies can be selected and developed into therapeutics.
"We are delighted to welcome high quality investors of the calibre of Malin and Woodford to Kymab which support our goal to build Kymab into a sustainable biopharmaceutical company," said David Chiswell, Chairman and interim CEO of Kymab. "The funds will be used to maximise the potential of the Kymab pipeline as we develop and commercialise monoclonal antibody medicines for difficult and novel drug targets."
"Kymab has assembled a talented leadership team; an efficient and effective discovery platform with broad application demonstrated by the pipeline of product opportunities already established," commented Kelly Martin, Director of Malin. "We look forward to working with David and his team to fully realize the potential of the Company’s programs, initially in immune-oncology and immunology, and the broader technology platform."
Antibodies are one of the best-selling classes of drugs today; five of the top ten best selling drugs are antibodies. This is because antibodies are natural products with exquisite specificity and potency, and generally have superior safety profiles. The challenge has been to capture the full human antibody repertoire and to recapitulate all its attributes.