Oxfordshire-based Grey Wolf Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging first-of-its-kind antigen modulation therapies to address the source of immune dysfunction in oncology and autoimmunity, announced the closing of an oversubscribed €46 million Series B financing expansion, bringing the total amount of Series B funds raised to $99 million.
The Series B expansion round was led by ICG’s Life Sciences team and included further investment from existing investors Pfizer Ventures, Andera Partners, Canaan, Earlybird Venture Capital, Oxford Science Enterprises and British Patient Capital. Proceeds from the round will be leveraged to broaden the scope of the company’s ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its lead immuno-oncology candidate, GRWD5769, in a range of solid tumour types. The funding also enables the company to expand research and development (R&D) for its versatile antigen modulation approach into treatments for autoimmune disease indications.
“The funds raised as part of this Series B expansion round allows us to enrich our ongoing clinical trial of GRWD5769 to include patients with a wider variety of tumour types and evaluate new combination treatment cohorts. In addition, the new capital enables us to more fully explore the breadth of potential therapeutic applications for our antigen modulation technology,” said Peter Joyce, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Grey Wolf Therapeutics. “There is a wealth of supportive recent clinical research and compelling human genetic associations pointing to the potential for antigen modulation driven by ERAP inhibition to open the door for disease-modifying therapies in the field of autoimmune disease. As such, we are expanding our R&D efforts and evaluating these broader therapeutic applications for our unique technology.”
Initial data on the ongoing adaptive Phase 1/2 trial of the lead asset GRWD5769, a first-in-class ERAP1 inhibitor will be presented at the upcoming 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting. A second ERAP1 inhibitor focussed on autoimmune disease is being advanced through IND-enabling studies with the goal of entering the clinic in 2025.
Tracy Weightman, Associate Director, Life Sciences at ICG, added: “Grey Wolf is an exciting growth stage UK biotechnology company with a novel and differentiated approach that has the potential to transform the lives of millions of patients globally. This investment demonstrates our commitment to building leading biotechnology companies and enabling them to compete on a global stage. We are pleased to support Grey Wolf through the next stage of its growth journey, enabling the company to advance its clinical development strategy and expand into new therapeutic areas.”
In conjunction with the financing, Grey Wolf has announced that Ms. Weightman has been appointed to the company’s board of directors.
Grey Wolf has developed and is advancing a unique therapeutic strategy that leverages the ability to effectively modulate the presentation of target antigens to the human immune system to upregulate or downregulate immune cell activity for specific therapeutic outcomes. This is achieved through the targeted inhibition of the endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidases (ERAP1 or ERAP2), proteins that play a key role in the antigen presentation pathway. In cancer, inhibiting ERAP1 or ERAP2 drives the generation and presentation of novel and potent antigens to elicit targeted immune activity. Additionally, this mechanism works to block the production of disease-causing auto-antigens to prevent pathogenic immune responses that drive autoimmune diseases.
