Biotech company Laigo Bio has completed the second close of its seed financing round with an additional $5.5 million bringing the total investment to $17 million.  

Laigo will use the seed financing to accelerate the development of its Surface Removal Targeting Chimeras (SureTACs) oncology programmes towards the clinic. It will also advance three candidate programmes for selected autoimmune and immunology indications, and graft rejection. 

Laigo’s SureTACs platform  generates bispecific antibodies that pair the optimal E3 ligase with a disease-causing target protein to stimulate its ubiquitination and lysosomal degradation with a high degree of specificity. The company states this allows the development of first-in-class dual targeted therapies that eliminate disease-driving membrane targets.  

Dr Matthew Baker, Chief Executive Officer of Laigo Bio, said: “The second close of our seed financing round further validates the potential of our SureTACs platform and its ability to identify first-in-class dual targeted therapies to redefine the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. The additional investment and support from new co-lead investor Biovance Capital, alongside further funding from our existing co-lead investor Kurma Partners, will accelerate our oncology programs towards the clinic and enhance our discovery efforts in auto-immunity and immunology. We welcome Dr. João Incio to the Board of Directors.” 

 Dr João Incio, General Partner at Biovance Capital, added: “Laigo Bio has shown that its SureTACs degradation technology results in remarkable in vivo and in vitro efficacy, with a high degree of selectivity and improved toxicity and safety. We at Biovance Capital see phenomenal potential in Laigo’s technology and support its commitment to exploring an ever-evolving universe of new targets, including those currently considered undruggable.” 

The post Laigo Bio raises $17m to advance oncology pipeline   appeared first on Drug Discovery World (DDW).