Leyden Labs (Leyden Laboratories B.V.) a Dutch startup working to free people from the threat of respiratory viruses, has secured $70 million in funding. The investment was co-led by ClavystBio, a life sciences venture investor established by Temasek, and Polaris Partners, with participation by Qiming Venture Partners and existing investors. The company’s syndicate of VC investors now includes GV (formerly Google Ventures), Casdin Capital, F-Prime Capital, ClavystBio, Qiming Venture Partners, Invus, Byers Capital / Brook Byers, Bluebird Ventures, and Softbank Vision Fund 2.
Funds utilisation
The company intends to use the funds to support further development of its pipeline aimed at providing protection against respiratory viruses, such as influenza and coronaviruses. It will support the initiation of human efficacy studies of PanFlu, advancements in its Mucosal Protection Platform research, and other pipeline activities.
Acquisition of biotech startup
In addition to the financing, Leyden Labs announced the acquisition of CoV Biotechnology Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean biotech company with assets developed by Linfa Wang, a professor of emerging infectious diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School. This acquisition adds to its research and development efforts including pandemic preparedness and other partnership initiatives in Asia.
Protects from respiratory viruses
Founded in 2020 by Jaap Goudsmit, Koenraad Wiedhaup and Ronald Brus in Amsterdam, Leyden Labs utilises its platform to target commonalities of viral families to protect against many viruses simultaneously as opposed to vaccines that typically protect against a specific virus variant. The company’s platform is built on two concepts: broad protection against known viruses, new variants and newly emerging viruses.
Leyden Labs is advancing a novel class of broadly protective nasal sprays, including its PanFlu candidate containing the monoclonal antibody CR9114, which is currently in development for influenza prophylaxis.
“This strong support from investors validates our approach to providing broad, universal protection against current and future viral outbreaks,” said Koenraad Wiedhaup, co-founder and chief executive officer of Leyden Labs. “At Leyden Labs, we’re working to stop infections early by delivering antibody-based formulations directly to the nasal mucosa – eliminating the threat of respiratory viruses directly at the very gate through which they enter. The timing of this fundraising is critical – in light of recent avian flu (H5N1) developments, we feel even more urgency to execute on our mission to protect people against existing and new viruses.”
“We are pleased to partner with Leyden Labs to advance the mission of protecting the world from the burden of known and new respiratory viruses,” said Khoo Shih, chief executive officer of ClavystBio, who joins the Supervisory Board of Leyden Labs. “This demonstrates our strong commitment to working with world-class scientists and passionate leaders at Leyden Labs to accelerate the development of its novel technology and pipeline to make a global health impact.”
The post Leyden Labs raises $70M to protect against influenza and other respiratory viruses appeared first on Tech Funding News.