In the largest biotech Series C financing so far this year, Generate:Biomedicines picked up new investors including Amgen and NVIDIA’s venture capital arm to advance its pipeline of 17 programs.
Pictured: Pile of money/iStock, Ihor Lukianenko
AI-focused startup Generate:Biomedicines has raised $273 million in Series C financing with new investors including Amgen and NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, the Massachusetts-based biotech announced Thursday.
The company will use these funds to advance its pipeline of 17 programs in clinical and preclinical development, leading up to multiple investigational new drug (IND) applications in 2024. Generate then plans to advance these candidates into the clinic.
Generate will also use the money to fully validate and improve its AI platform, leading to significantly better “precision, speed, and probability of success of novel therapeutics,” CEO Mike Nally said in a statement, adding that the investment will also help the company establish a better industry position and “tackle even more complex targets and unmet patient needs.”
“With our first program now in the clinic and multiple programs expected to enter clinical studies over the next couple of years, we are beginning to realize the enormous potential of generative biology to save and improve the lives of patients in areas where the burden of disease is greatest,” Nally said.
Generate’s drug discovery and development platform is designed to create optimized sequences, yielding novel proteins that “have never been seen in nature” but are informed by natural sequences, according to the company’s website.
The Generate platform looks at hundreds of millions of known proteins to identify statistical patterns in amino acid sequence, structure and function to create custom protein-based therapeutics, such as antibodies, gene therapies and enzymes.
The AI-driven approach secured the biotech $370 million in Series B financing in November 2021.
Since that fundraising round, Generate has initiated a first-in-human study for its COVID-19 candidate GB-0669. The investigational antibody targets a highly conserved and unique region of the virus’ spike protein, unlike other antibody therapeutics that bind to the receptor-binding domain of the spike.
Generate will also use its lessons learned from the COVID-19 program to not only develop more effective treatments against the SARS-CoV-2 virus but to help ensure better preparation for future pandemics.
Beyond its COVID-19 program, Generate is readying a Clinical Trial Application for an investigational monoclonal antibody targeting the thymic stromal lymphopoietin protein, which is being developed for asthma. The company expects to file the application during the fourth quarter of 2023 and launch a clinical trial shortly after.
Generate has also expanded its drug development platform into bi-specific molecules, T-cell engagers and cell therapies.
During Generate’s Series C round, the company also picked up new investors MAPS Capital and Pictet Alternative Advisors—in addition to Amgen and NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm. All Series B supporters also participated in the recent financing cycle.
Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.
