Press Release | FMP | 03-05-2022

FMP & LMU spin-off Tubulis closes €60 million Series B financing to accelerate its ADC Pipeline

The company Tubulis announced today the closing of a Series B financing round totaling €60 million to advance the development of a novel class of highly stable and efficient antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for treating cancer, and to expand its breadth of platform technologies.

Tubulis has a set of proprietary technologies for producing novel and particularly stable antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Their portfolio enables the company to link a wide range of drugs to an antibody specific to the relevant indication by way of stable coupling (conjugation). One positive aspect of this is that adverse side effects in healthy tissue can be minimized, since biophysical properties of the ADC are optimized and the drug is prevented from separating from the antibody prematurely, a common side effect from current compounds on the market. In addition, the company’s proprietary technologies offer the potential to generate previously inaccessible protein-drug combinations, enabling a broader therapeutic window.

“Our research group is very proud to be part of Tubulis’ success story. Together with Prof. Heinrich Leonhardt’s group at LMU München, we have developed new methods to generate the novel ADCs that form the scientific basis that Tubulis uses. Closing the Series B round is a big step forward and the proceeds will enable the company to deliver the true therapeutic potential of ADCs through further innovation of novel payload classes and identification of new cancer targets.” remarks Professor Dr. Christian Hackenberger, Head of Chemical Biology at the FMP and Leibniz-Humboldt Professor at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and co-founder of Tubulis.

 “This funding emphasizes that Tubulis is uniquely positioned to consolidate the findings of the last 20 years in the ADC field and translate this understanding into meaningful therapeutic benefits for patients. We have reached an important inflection point in the development of our platform technologies as well as our pipeline of highly novel protein-drug conjugates and we are now focused on unlocking new avenues in the treatment of solid tumors bringing safe and effective ADCs to patients,” said Dominik Schumacher, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Tubulis. “With this capital in place, we will execute on our growth strategy, including important focus areas for our pipeline and for how we can apply our proprietary technologies, biologic insights and new mechanisms of action to enable the true therapeutic value inherent in targeted therapeutics.”

In conjunction with the round, Sofia Ioannidou, PhD, Partner at Andera Partners, Thomas Hanke, PhD, EVP, Head of Academic Partnerships at Evotec as well as Jan Van den Bossche, Partner at Fund+ will join Tubulis’ Board of Directors consisting of Sebastian Pünzeler, PhD, Principal at coparion, Dominik Schumacher, PhD, CEO of Tubulis and Christian Grøndahl, MD, DVM, PhD, MBA, the Chairman of the Board. In addition, Valentin Piëch, PhD, Partner at BioMedPartners will take over the board seat from Michael Wacker, PhD, General Partner at BioMedPartners.

Tubulis was founded as a spin-off of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) in Berlin and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München in 2019.

Tubulis generates uniquely matched protein-drug conjugates through the combination of novel proprietary technologies and disease-specific biologic insight. Our goal is to expand the therapeutic potential of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) by increasing design flexibility while overcoming constraints of toxicity, efficacy and indication. Tubulis will build new conjugates to fill its growing pipeline and will continue to collaborate with industry partners to usher in a new ADC era and deliver better outcomes for patients. Visit www.tubulis.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Prof. Dr. Christian Hackenberger
Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP)
Leibniz-Humboldt-Professur für Chemische Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Phone +49 30 94793-181
Email hackenbefmp-berlin.de
Web https://www.leibniz-fmp.de/hackenbe
Twitter @PhosphorusFive

Tubulis GmbH
Dr. Dominik Schumacher, CEO
Phone +49 89 218074233
Email dominik.schumacher@tubulis.com
Web tubulis.com

Public Relations
Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP)
Silke Oßwald
Phone +49 30 94793-104
Email osswaldfmp-berlin.de
Web https://www.leibniz-fmp.de
Twitter @LeibnizFMP