New Hampshire biotech Avitide is building out a lithe platform that could turn biologics manufacturing on its head. Its simplified protein engineering and purification technology could help makers of both biologics and biosimilars develop highly pure, hard-to-replicate molecular structures.
The company just closed out a relatively small Series C round of about $7.5 million, bringing the company’s total financing to $12.5 million. Investors include high-profile venture firms like Polaris Partners and OrbiMed Advisors, as well as SV Life Sciences, Borealis Ventures, NeoMed Management, N5 Investments and others.
“It’s only a tenth of what a typical biotech raises, but we’re on pace to achieve profitability in the three to four years following our launch,” CEO Kevin Isett told MedCity News.
The technology was spun out from Dartmouth College in 2013, and is chaired by storied biotech businessman Tillman Gerngross of Adimab.
The company uses affinity purification to develop what it says is a highly precise biologics manufacturing system – separating out impurities that were previously impossible to remove, Isett said. Typical product purification is completed in five or six steps, but Avitide’s approach can simplify it to just a step or two – while minimizing product loss.
One application of Avitide’s drug manufacturing platform: It can help pharmaceutical companies create complex, hard-to-duplicate biologics. But the company’s also able to help biosimilar clients reverse-engineer existing biologics on the market – making the fast-paced drug manufacturing process at the New Hampshire startup fairly valuable.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“We don’t discovered drug products, but technologies that accelerate the bioclinical pipeline,” Isett said. “We help create key intellectual property – both shaping and purifying a drug molecule.”
The company’s using the funding to help scale its drug manufacturing platform, in which it’ll license out the technology it’s developed specifically for clients.
“At first, we were skeptical, this being a highly conservative industry that has seen very slow adoption of innovation for decades,” NeoMed Management partner Claudio Nessi said in a statement. “The technical capabilities of the Avitide platform, combined with its partnership-focused model, has led to a rapidly growing roster of new and expanded biopharma partner relationships, validating their approach. We are convinced that the time for measured risk and cautious optimism has expired.”
