Uni Basel spin-off joins antibody-based drug race

Ulf Grawunder, had been heading the Roche-endowed department of immunology at the University of Basel before starting up 4-Antibody. Gebert Rüf Foundation

University of Basel spin-off company 4-Antibody, has come up with a patented platform for producing monoclonal human antibodies.

With research grants and seed funding the firm is on its way to staking a claim in an emerging new field within the biotech sector.

The biotech industry is hoping that antibodies, which traditionally protect mammals against disease, can be developed and produced on an industrial scale for treating cancer and other illnesses, even allergies, by targeting diseased cells and eliminating them from the body.

Giving the segment a boost is the United States approval of the first fully human monoclonal antibodies a little over a year ago. Europe so far has not given its approval.

4-Antibody, which owes its Swiss location to the fact that its German-born founder and CEO, Ulf Grawunder, had been heading up the Roche-endowed department of immunology created at the University of Basel in 2002, has plans to develop antibody drug candidates for pharmaceutical firms, as well as developing its own antibody program.

It announced closing a SFr2.75 million ($2.11 million) seed round in March from a syndicate of international venture capital investors, co-led by Amsterdam-based Life Sciences Partners and Basel-based BioMedinvestor.

Concept phase

The other investors are Hamburg-based Mulligan BioCapital and Stuttgart-based Grazia Equity.

It may seem unusual to have so many investors in the early stage but in biotechnology this is increasingly the trend.

Talking specifically about 4-Antibody, venture capital investor Jens Klein of Mulligan BioCaptial said that the investors wanted to “share the risk” of getting this technology beyond the proof of concept phase.

Grawunder says that his company will be competing for market share against “quite established” biotech companies listed on international stock exchanges with significant market capitalisations.

This is the reason he wanted to have as many investors with deep pockets as possible, adding that “the more pockets you have, the better it will be in the future”.

Publicly traded firms with monoclonal antibodies programs targeting cancer include Genentech Inc and Biogen IDEC Inc. In addition, a number of other start-up firms are targeting the same market.

Financing

Just this month Ghent, Belgium-based Ablynx NV, raised a €25 million ($30 million) in a second round of financing from a syndicate of European and US investors, including biotechnology powerhouse venture capital investors such San Francisco-based Alta Partners and Abingworth Management Ltd. of London, along with GIMV NV of Antwerp, Belgium, Sofinnova Partners of Paris, and Utrecht, Netherlands-based Gilde Investment Management BV.

Ablynx is a spin-off of the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, and the Free University of Brussels.

The antibodies that it develops were first discovered in camels and llamas and are much smaller than antibodies on the market today, which the firm says gives them better gastrointestinal stability and superior tissue penetration, according to the startup.

It has a number of preclinical studies under way for treatment of inflammation and thrombosis. It currently employs 30 people.

The total therapeutic monoclonal antibodies market estimated at $296 million in 2002 and is projected to surge to $2.8 billion by 2010, according to Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm based in London, England.

by Valerie Thompson