GAITHERSBURG, MD – Zyngenia Inc., a bioteherapeutics firm developing next-generation antibody drugs, has closed on a $15 million extension of its Series A financing from New Enterprise Associates. NEA invested $10 million in the company in Sept. 2009, and it raised $2.5 million in loans and grants from Maryland and Montgomery County in March.
The state provided a $1 million loan to assist the company with costs of its new 14,000-square-foot facility, while the county provided a $1.5 million grant to help it meet fund-raising goals.
Zyngenia’s pipeline of Zybodies, which are novel, multi-specific, antibody-based molecules that address two or more biological targets with a single protein drug. The company’s initial research programs focus on developing novel therapeutics for various cancers and autoimmune diseases.
“Zyngenia continues to build evidence that our single protein-combination biologics will be an important part of a new therapeutic paradigm – scientifically, medically, and economically – and this continued financial support from NEA is a vote of confidence as we advance our development of multi-specific biologic therapies,” said Peter Kiener, president and CEO.
“To date, we’ve been able to leverage Zyngenia’s cadre of highly experienced scientists and our robust technology platform to achieve preclinical proof of concept both in vitro and in vivo in our lead programs,” he added.
“The additional funding from NEA will allow us to move these programs towards the clinic and to continue to extend our technology platform. We have initiated cell line development for the manufacturing of our first two clinical candidates and expect to file INDs for clinical trials in the first half of 2012.”
The company was founded in 2008.
Maryland biotechs have been attracting substantial funding all year. We would not be surprised to see the state, which has initiatives to support the biotech industry that are similar to North Carolina’s, such as a biotech center and state backed investment programs, climb in the yearly rankings of biotech hubs, where it has generally been in the top five, but trailing North Carolina in recent years.
Maryland’s proximity to the National Institutes of Health and the Potomac region’s vast resources appears to be helping it weather the economic downturn in at least some areas.
To contact TechJournal South Editor & Writer Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournalSouth dot com.
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- World’s largest center for biotech education opens at NCSU
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