Sanofi's corporate venturing unit was among the new investors in a round that will support the advancement of Selecta's gout treatment through Phase 1 trials.
US-based immunotherapeutic developer Selecta Biosciences closed a $38m series E round on Tuesday backed by Sanofi-Genzyme BioVentures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Sanofi.
Investment firm OrbiMed led the round, which also featured Ridgeback Capital Management, Osage University Partners, AJU IB Investment, Sphera Global Health Care Fund and all Selecta’s existing investors, which include Rusnano, Flagship Ventures, NanoDimension, Leukon Investments and Polaris Venture Partners.
Selecta will use the cash to advance several product candidates from its Synthetic Vaccine Particle platform, which produces antigen-specific immunotherapeutics. Its lead drug candidate, SEL-212, is a gout treatment that is in Phase 1 clinical trials.
The company aims to complete the Phase 1 trial and begin a multi-dose ascending Phase 2 study in 2016. It has now raised approximately $117m in equity funding since it was founded in 2007.
Werner Cautreels, Selecta’s CEO, said: “With this oversubscribed round that includes a balance of crossover, strategic and venture investors, we are very pleased to see this strong support from the investor community for our antigen-specific immunotherapies.
“We now have the resources and investor base that will see us through the Phase 2 clinical development of SEL-212, the first non-immunogenic biologic therapy for gout, and the extension of our clinical pipeline into first ever non-immunogenic gene therapies and therapeutic biologics.”
