Blend Therapeutics has secured $21 million in new funding. The new financing includes additional equity investment from a new investor and all of Blend’s existing venture investors in an expansion of the Series B round, as well as debt financing from an institutional investment firm.
The proceeds of the financing will enable Blend to fully exploit its proprietary Pentarin platform, unveiled, which creates novel, miniaturized biologic drug conjugates encapsulated in nanoparticles, representing a new class of cancer therapeutics. Including the $21 million announced today, Blend has obtained a total of $39.8 million in funding to date. Blend is backed by top-tier venture investors, including New Enterprise Associates, Flagship Ventures, NanoDimension and Eminent Venture Capital.
Blend has also secured a technology licence from a private biotechnology company for novel bi-podal biologic targeting ligands that is an exclusive license in the field of oncology. The in-licensing of this ligand technology is a strategic asset for Blend to develop a robust pipeline of Pentarins. Targeting ligands are one of the core components of Pentarins and Blend’s platform enables the conjugation of the targeting ligand to a therapeutic payload with a chemical linker to create miniaturized biologic drug conjugates (mBDCs), and encapsulates the mBDCs in proprietary nanoparticles to create Pentarins. Together, the components of the Pentarins have distinct yet synergistic anticancer capabilities: the nanoparticle enables high therapeutic concentration at the tumour site; the small size of mBDCs allows for effective penetration and distribution deep into the tumour tissue; the ligand’s targeting ability allows for specific binding to tumour cells; and the cell-killing payload is released inside the cancer cells.
“We are excited to unveil our Pentarin platform as a product engine that creates a new class of cancer therapeutics, and an exceptional opportunity to create value for patients as well as our investors. We look forward to conducting IND-enabling studies to advance our lead Pentarin drug program BTP-277 and completing IND enabling studies of our novel, personalized cisplatin, BTP-114, from our longstanding R&D in platinum drugs” said Richard Wooster, President of R&D of Blend. “Pentarins are an entirely new class of biologic drug conjugates specifically designed for solid tumours, and represent a significant advance in the field since the first development of antibody drug conjugates 35 years ago. We have created Pentarins to have a unique structure, miniaturization and nanoparticle encapsulation that enable the selective targeting of cancer cells and unprecedented penetration deep into tumour tissue, with the aim to improve the treatment of solid tumour cancers for patients.”
In the advancement of Blend’s pipeline of novel drug programmes, the proceeds from the financing will be used to further develop the company’s lead programme, BTP-114, through studies to enable filing of an investigational new drug (IND) application with the FDA. Based on Blend’s historical R&D in novel platinum drug discovery and distinct from the Pentarin platform, BTP-114 is a novel, personalized cisplatin prodrug with novel chemistry designed to preferentially accumulate platinum at the tumour site, deliver a concentrated therapeutic effect and target specific cancers. The funding will also enable Blend to advance its first Pentarin drug candidate, BTP-277, to IND enabling studies as well as exploring other internal Pentarin programmes. In addition, Blend anticipates developing Pentarins in partnership with biotechnology and pharmaceutical collaborators who have their own proprietary targeting protein scaffolds which can be deployed to create novel biologic drug conjugates using Blend’s Pentarin platform.
