Antibody drug discovery biotech raises $12m in seed funding

By Rachel Arthur

- Last updated on GMT

Pic:getty/khongtham
Pic:getty/khongtham
Infinimmune, a biotech pioneering new methods for antibody drug discovery and development, has closed a $12 million seed round: helping it develop its R&D capabilities.

The round was led by Playground Global, with participation from Pear VC, Civilization Ventures, Axial VC, Ron Alfa, Jacob Becraft, Paul Conley, and Joshua Meier.

Based in San Francisco, Infinimmune is ‘reinventing’ antibody drug discovery by focusing solely on human-derived antibody drugs. As it puts it, ‘inside every human, the equivalent of 100 billion antibody clinical trials are conducted every day, testing each antibody for safety and efficacy in parallel’ ​and the company wants to harness this phenomenon to discover, characterize, and export protective antibodies in therapeutic form from humans to the clinic.

These antibodies, continues the company, constitute fundamentally better drug candidates than those originating in other organisms.

“The industry has proven the value of antibody-based drugs, but the limited number of both drugs and targets demonstrates a need for new approaches to discovery,”​ said Wyatt McDonnell, CEO and co-founder of Infinimmune, announcing the seed funding round.

“We aim to take full advantage of truly human antibodies, identifying better and safer drug candidates more efficiently. We’re thrilled that this world-class group of investors shares our vision, and we are excited to expand our team of top talent, develop our R&D capabilities, and scale our operations.”

Infinimmune founders Wyatt McDonnell, Katie Pfeiffer, Mike Gibbons, Lance Hepler, and David Jaffe have led development teams at 10x Genomics, Pacific Biosciences, and the Broad Institute. Together, they want to take advantage of single-cell technology, leverage powerful datasets and sample cohorts, and build and integrate new technology to identify new targets and develop new classes of safe and effective antibody drugs.

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