The company, helmed by BioNTech alums, is developing therapies aimed at dermatological, respiratory and gut-related indications.
Bambusa Therapeutics raised around $90 million in a series A round Friday to drive the development of bispecific antibodies for immunological and inflammatory disorders.
The Boston-based company was founded in early 2024 with two BioNTech alums at the helm. Bambusa’s CEO and President Shanshan Xu was vice president for external innovations at the mRNA specialist before Bambusa’s creation, and co-founder Helmut Jeggle sits on BioNTech’s board.
“We founded Bambusa Therapeutics with a belief that the I&I field is long overdue for innovative approaches and transformative therapeutics,” Xu said in a September 2024 statement.
Without providing specific technical details, Bambusa shared that its pipeline is made up of four molecules. BBT001, its lead candidate, is a bispecific aimed at a variety of unspecified dermatological condition. BBT002, another bispecific, has applications “across respiratory, dermatology, and gastroenterology indications,” according to Bambusa’s press release. Two more molecules, BBT003 and BBT004, are aimed at inflammatory bowel and rheumatological diseases.
BBT001 and BBT002 are expected to start clinical trials by the end of this quarter and mid-2025, respectively.
The series A raise was led by RA Capital Management, with Janus Henderson Investors, Redmile Group, Invus and ADAR1 Capital Management all joining in. It follows Bambusa’s $15 million initial seed round, which closed this past September. According to Bambusa’s statement, all existing investors participated in the series A, which brings BVF Partners, KKR, Salvia GmbH and INCE Capital along for the ride. Jeggle is also managing director at Salvia GmbH.
Bambusa is playing in an I&I space that has seen considerable investment in the past couple of years. Larger companies like Gilead and Sanofi have recently entered into co-development deals with smaller biotechs to make immune targeted-molecules, with a spate of mergers and acquisitions littered across the 2024 calendar year, including Eli Lilly’s $3.2 billion purchase of Morphic Holding in July and Vertex’s $4.9 billion buy of Alpine Immune Sciences.
