Alentis Therapeutics raises $105M for claudin platform

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cancer protein

Alentis Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech developing treatments for organ fibrosis and claudin-1 (CLDN1) positive tumors. 

The company has announced $105 million in Series C financing. The funding round was led by Jeito Capital, Novo Holdings A/S and RA Capital Management with participation from existing investors including BB Pureos Bioventures, Bpifrance through its InnoBio 2 fund and Schroders Capital.

The financing will support phase II and phase I programs of Alentis’ lead investigational products ALE.F02 and ALE.C04 respectively as well as the CLDN1 platform development.

Alentis is pioneering a novel approach to modify and reverse the course of disease progression targeting CLDN1, a previously unexploited target that plays a key role in the pathology of tumors with immune evasive properties and fibrotic disease across multiple organs. CLDN1 is a protein coding gene.

Roberto Iacone, CEO at Alentis Therapeutics, said: “There are huge unmet needs in organ fibrosis and cancer, and this funding enables us to continue with the important work we’re doing in the CLDN1 space and generate clinical data from both our programs. We can now aggressively develop CLDN1 biology in oncology and continue with the recruitment of our organ fibrosis trials while advancing our ADC and bi-specific antibodies.”

Alentis Therapeutics generating meaningful data

Founder and CEO of Jeito Capital, Rafaèle Tordjman said: “We are totally convinced about the CLDN1 biology potential in multiple areas of fibrosis and oncology. Alentis has made significant progress in identifying target populations while developing programs and advancing the platform. We are committed to continuing our partnership with Alentis as they are the leading player in the CLDN1 space and are well positioned to generate meaningful clinical data within the next 12 to 18 months.”

Since its $67 million Series B funding in June 2021, the company’s ALE.F02 study completion is imminent; it has defined the CLDN1+ cancer patient population, including T-cell excluded cancers to develop ALE.C04 in oncology; set-up a platform to engineer CLDN1 antibody drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies that the Series C will help to further develop; and is expanding its team.

Earlier this year, Alentis announced positive results from a single ascending dose phase 1 study of its lead program, ALE.F02, currently in development for the treatment of advanced kidney, lung and liver fibrosis. 

Alentis is headquartered in Basel’s pharma-biotech hub in Switzerland with an R&D subsidiary in Strasbourg, France, and clinical operations in the U.S.

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