Iksuda Therapeutics closes $47m financing round

UK-based Iksuda Therapeutics (Iksuda), a developer of a new generation of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) with raised therapeutic index, announced it has completed a US $47m financing round, co-led by Mirae Asset Capital and its subsidiaries, Celltrion and Premier Partners, with the Company being advised by Ashfords LLP. The funding will support the advancement of Iksuda's lead ADC assets and expansion of its payload and conjugation platform technologies, the company announced.

Accordingly, Iksuda's lead pre-clinical candidate, IKS03, is a best-in-class CD19-targeted ADC candidate for B-cell cancers. The investment will enable progression of IKS03 to first-in-human phase 1 clinical trials. It will also be used to accelerate the Company's earlier-stage programmes including IKS04 and IKS012 to IND filing.

The ADC programmes target tumours that currently have limited treatment options and high relapse rates. The Company's drug development pipeline is centred on the improved safety and efficacy conferred by tumour activated, prodrug payloads in combination with stable conjugation technologies, including its proprietary novel PermaLink platform. Iksuda's research-stage pipeline utilises its proprietary Protein Alkylating (ProAlk) tumour-activated payload platform, recently licensed from Göttingen University. The novel mode of action for the ProAlk tuneable payload series differs from the field's primary focus of intra- or DNA inter-strand cross-linking, conferring benefits against drug and tumour resistance mechanisms, and enabling the development of more powerful, more tolerable ADCs, the company announced.