Artbio on Tuesday said it has added $132 million in venture funding to advance it pipeline of radiopharmaceutical drugs for cancer and grow a manufacturing network to support their production.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Oslo, Norway, and led by former Novartis executive Emanuele Ostuni, Artbio is working on several radiopharmaceuticals. The furthest along is a program called AB001, which the company is developing for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Artbio said it will use some of its new funding to get AB001 through mid-stage clinical trials.
Radiopharmaceuticals are designed to precisely deliver radiation into tumors. After decades of research, they’ve become a buzzing area of oncology research, thanks to technical advances as well as the clinical and commercial success of Novartis’ prostate cancer drug Pluvicto. More than a dozen startups have formed in recent years to develop radiopharmaceuticals. Multiple companies have been acquired by large drugmakers.
While many of these companies are focused on similar cancer targets, they’re using different tools, such as an different radioactive isotopes or targeting molecules.
For example, Pluvicto and Bayer’s Xofigo, an older radiopharmaceutical for prostate cancer, are built around the isotopes lutetium-177 and radium-223, respectively. AB001 instead shepherds a lead-based radioactive isotope called Pb-212 that Artbio believes can more quickly deliver radiation to tumors. Ostuni said that the drug could provoke a “more durable and efficacious response” in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients.
Testing remains very early. Results from a small, first-in-human trial primarily evaluating safety were published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine in May. A Phase 1 trial will begin “imminently” this year, said Ostuni.
But Artbio is already building enough production capacity to support global studies and, eventually, commercialization. Moving quickly on manufacturing is vital because supplies of radioactive materials are limited, and the drugs have to be made and delivered via an intensive supply chain.
Artbio also touts a technology that can help simplify the generation of isotopes, which Maha Katabi, a general partner at Sofinnova Investments, described in a statement as a “game-changer for navigating around supply and production challenges.”
“It's important that we don't just build a great molecule and a great clinical development program,” said Ostuni, “but we also build the technology to isolate the isotope and manufacture the drug product.”
Since its founding, Artbio has established partnerships with biotech Parabilis — formerly known as FogPharma — AlphaGen Therapeutics and 3B Pharmaceuticals. The company raised $90 million in Series A funding in 2023.
Sofinnova Investments and B Capital led the Series B round announced Tuesday. F-Prime Capital, Omega Funds, Third Rock Ventures, Qatar Investment Authority and Alexandria Venture Investments also participated.
