Affinivax Closes $120 Million Financing Round to Support Vaccine Development Program

 

Cambridge, Mass.-based Affinivax completed a $120 million Series B financing round that will be used to advance its vaccine and immunotherapy candidates.

Affinivax will use the funds to support the development of its novel Multiple Antigen Presentation System (“MAPS”) vaccine technology and drive more of its experimental treatments into clinical trials. The funds will advance the company’s MAPS pneumococcal vaccine program, as well as several additional vaccine candidates targeting hospital-associated infections (HAIs) into clinical studies. The company’s lead pneumococcal vaccine currently in clinical trials designed to provide the broadest protection.

Affinivax’s lead vaccine targets Streptococcus pneumonia. The company is developing the candidate, ASP3772, with Astellas Pharma. ASP3772 includes 24 pneumococcal serotypes, more than any other vaccine on the market or in clinical testing today, the company said. ASP3772 is currently being studied in pneumococcal infection in elderly adults, its initial indication, in an ongoing Phase II study that is nearing completion. In a previously completed Phase 1 study, ASP3772 was demonstrated to be safe and highly immunogenic in healthy adults, the company noted. The clinical program for ASP3772 is expected to expand to include an infant indication.

In its announcement this morning, Affinivax said it recognizes the ongoing need to increase protection against “new, emerging pneumococcal serotypes” and will continue to focus on developing additional pneumococcal MAPS vaccines that are designed to prevent against an even greater number of serotypes.

The Series B financing round was led by Viking Global Investors with participation from Bain Capital Life Sciences and Ziff Capital Partners. The Series B represents the first financing round the company completed since Affinivax received an initial seed and Series A equity investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Steven Brugger, chief executive officer of Affinivax, said they are excited about the syndicate of investors who supported the company in its Series B financing round.

“Having built the company to over 70 employees and advanced MAPS into clinical testing in less than 5 years, we are very excited to look ahead to our next phase of growth, taking our lead pneumococcal vaccine through Phase III testing and bringing several additional novel MAPS vaccines and immunotherapies into clinical trials,” Brugger said in a statement.

With the completion of the Series B financing round, Andrew Hack and Steven Altschuler joined the Affinivax Board of Directors. Prior to his current role at Bain Capital, Hack was the Chief Financial Officer of Editas Medicine and a portfolio manager at Millennium Management. Altschuler was the founder and chairman of Spark Therapeutics, and the CEO of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“With the ongoing increase in the global health threat posed by a broad range of infectious diseases, new prevention strategies to combat disease are more important than ever,” said Altschuler, who is now the managing director of Ziff Capital Partners. “We believe Affinivax’s novel MAPS vaccine technology with its promise for broad protection can play a key role in the prevention of serious infectious diseases.”