Alamar Biosciences, a company powering precision proteomics to enable the earliest detection of diseases, and Frazier Life Sciences, have launched Attovia Therapeutics, a company focused on creating a pipeline of biotherapeutics in immune-mediated disease and cancer.
The company, based on Attobody, Alamar’s novel proprietary biparatopic nanobody platform, concurrently closed a $60 million Series A financing led by Frazier and joined by venBio and Illumina Ventures.
Attovia Therapeutics will receive an exclusive world-wide license to the Attobody platform and associated intellectual property and pipeline assets in the therapeutic field in exchange for equity and potential milestones and royalties. The company plans to use the proceeds from the Series A financing to achieve clinical proof-of-concept on its lead program in immune-mediated disease, nominate additional development candidates across the company’s core areas of focus in immunology and oncology, and advance the core Attobody technology platform.
“By creating Attovia with Frazier and other investors, we can give the Attobody platform the dedicated attention and resources it deserves to fully realize its potential,” said Yuling Luo, founder, chairman and CEO of Alamar and co-founder of Attovia.
“Alamar scientists developed the Attobody platform to improve the affinity and specificity of antibodies and we are very excited to expand its applications to therapeutic development.”
Attovia Therapeutics to create a robust pipeline
Tao Fu, co-founder of Attovia Therapeutics and venture partner at Frazier Life Sciences, will serve as Attovia Therapeutics’ chief executive officer and join the board. Attovia Therapeutics’ leadership team is rounded out by Petter Veiby (chief scientific officer), Hangjun Zhan (chief technology officer), and Zaneta Odrowaz (chief business officer).
“The ability to combine two nanobodies into a single biparatopic Attobody creates opportunities to fine-tune therapies for specific targets and to expand the target universe,” Fu said.
Jamie Topper, managing partner at Frazier Life Sciences, said: “Company creation is one of Frazier’s core strategies, and we are thrilled to partner with Alamar and other investors to launch Attovia. We believe Attovia is in a strong position to create a robust pipeline of first- and best-in-class drugs derived from the Attobody platform.”
The Attobody platform
The Attobody platform generates small format binders (referred to as Attobodies) with ultra-high affinity, enhanced internalization and fast tissue penetration. These properties make Attobodies ideal binders for hard-to-drug targets such as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and enable broad applicability across a number of modalities such as antibody-drug conjugate, radioconjugate or multi-specific biologics development.
The biparatopic binding mode of Attobodies, combined with the high-throughput, evolution-driven method of discovering binders, significantly expands druggable epitope and target space.
Attobodies do not require affinity maturation and can be engineered into a variety of valencies and half-life extension formats. So far, Alamar and Attovia Therapeutics have successfully generated Attobodies against a host of membrane, soluble and viral targets.