BASEL, Switzerland– Alentis Therapeutics (“Alentis”), the Claudin-1 (CLDN1) company, is a clinical-stage biotech developing breakthrough treatments for organ fibrosis and CLDN1 positive tumors. Today, Alentis announced $105 million in Series C financing. The funding round was led by Jeito Capital together with Novo Holdings A/S and RA Capital Management with participation from existing investors including BB Pureos Bioventures, Bpifrance through its InnoBio 2 fund and Schroders Capital.
The financing will support Phase II and Phase I programs of Alentis’ lead investigational products ALE.F02 and ALE.C04 respectively as well as the CLDN1 platform development.
“We are absolutely delighted with this support from our investors,” said Dr. Roberto Iacone, CEO at Alentis Therapeutics. “There are huge unmet needs in organ fibrosis and cancer, and this funding enables us to continue with the important work we’re doing in the CLDN1 space and generate clinical data from both our programs. We can now aggressively develop CLDN1 biology in oncology and continue with the recruitment of our organ fibrosis trials while advancing our ADC and bi-specific antibodies.”
Founder and CEO of Jeito Capital, Rafaèle Tordjman said, “We are totally convinced about the CLDN1 biology potential in multiple areas of fibrosis and oncology. Alentis has made significant progress in identifying target populations while developing programs and advancing the platform. We are committed to continuing our partnership with Alentis as they are the leading player in the CLDN1 space and are well positioned to generate meaningful clinical data within the next 12-18 months.”
Novo Holdings’ Senior Partner, Naveed Siddiqi will join the Alentis Therapeutics’ Board of Directors. “The Venture Investments team of Novo Holdings has an extensive track record of backing high-quality biotechs across Europe and the US developing novel treatments for unmet medical needs,” said Naveed Siddiqi. “Alentis has pioneered a world-leading position in the Claudin-1 space and is led by highly capable drug developers. We were encouraged by exciting emerging pre-clinical data in oncology and the potential of Claudin-1 targeted therapeutics to treat a wide range of cancers where Claudin-1 is highly expressed. We are looking forward to supporting Alentis as it further advances its pipeline in the clinic with the proceeds of this round.”
Since its $67 million Series B funding in June 2021, Alentis has made major strides: ALE.F02 MAD study completion is imminent; it has clearly defined the CLDN1+ cancer patient population, including T-cell excluded cancers to develop ALE.C04 in oncology; set-up the platform to engineer CLDN1 antibody drug conjugates and bi-specific antibodies that the Series C will help to further develop; and is expanding its team of top talent.
