Adagio will use the funding to advance its lead candidate ADG20, a single agent intended for both treatment and prevention of Covid-19
Adagio to advance antibody treatment for Covid-19. (Credit: visuals3Dde from Pixabay.)
Adagio Therapeutics has received $336m in Series C financing round, led by RA Capital Management, an investment advisor focused on life-sciences and healthcare sectors.
New investors including Redmile Group, Federated Hermes, Foresite Capital, ArrowMark Partners, PremjiInvest, and another leading healthcare investor have participated in the funding round.
Also, existing investors Fidelity Management & Research Co., OrbiMed, Polaris Partners, Mithril, GV, Population Health Partners, Adimab and Omega Funds have participated in the financing.
The US-based biotechnology company intends to use the funding to advance its lead clinical candidate ADG20, a single agent intended for both treatment and prevention of Covid-19.
Adagio co-founder and CEO Tillman Gerngross said: “The Covid-19 pandemic continues to be a major health crisis worldwide, and even with emergency use authorisations for vaccines and antibody-based therapies, there remains a significant need for medications to treat and prevent Covid-19 infection.
“We are advancing ADG20 through a rapid development strategy based on preclinical data that demonstrate its best-in-class potential for treating all known variants of Covid-19 today.
“This financing is a testament to the quality of our science, the relentless execution by the Adagio team and to Jane Henderson, who joined us as CFO earlier in the year and brings a 32-year track record of financial and corporate strategy, execution and operations.”
ADG20 is a monoclonal antibody that targets the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and similar coronaviruses and is intended for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19.
Unlike other antibody treatments, ADG20 is capable of effectively neutralising a wide range of sarbecoviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants, said the company.
In preclinical studies, the treatment has demonstrated a unique combination of potency, breadth and complete neutralisation of SARS-CoV-2 and all currently known variants.
Adagio has commenced a Phase 1 clinical trial of ADG20 in healthy volunteers, along with a Phase 1/2/3 STAMP trial in high-risk individuals with mild or moderate Covid-19.
The clinical trial is designed to advance ADG20 to proof-of-concept data and support the company’s emergency use authorisation submission.
Furthermore, the company is planning to begin a third clinical trial to evaluate ADG20 for the prevention of symptomatic Covid-19 in the second quarter of 2021.