BELTSVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NextCure Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing the next generation of immunomedicines for cancer and other diseases, today announced the completion of a $93 million series B equity financing. The financing was led by Hillhouse Capital Management and Quan Capital, and included Bay City Capital, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Ping An Ventures, Taiho Ventures LLC, ArrowMark Partners and NS Investment. All existing investors also participated in this financing, including Canaan Partners, Lilly Asia Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors LLC, Pfizer Inc., Sofinnova Ventures and Alexandria Venture Investments. Additionally, Eli Lilly and Company invested $15 million in this financing in conjunction with the discovery and development partnership announced on November 5, 2018.
In connection with the financing, Michael Yi, M.B.A., (Hillhouse Capital Management) and Stella Xu, Ph.D., (Quan Capital) will join the board of directors.
The proceeds will be primarily used to support clinical development for the company’s two lead drug candidates, including NC318, preclinical development of additional novel immunomedicine drug candidates, and the Company’s activities under its previously announced collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to discover and develop novel cancer targets with the Company’s proprietary FIND-IO™ platform.
“We are excited to welcome a distinguished group of new investors to NextCure and appreciate the strong support from our existing investors,” said Michael Richman, NextCure’s President & CEO. “We have made tremendous progress in the past 2.5 years, and look forward to the continued clinical development of NC318 and advancement of our growing portfolio of first-in-class immunomedicines.”
About NC318
NC318 is a first-in-class immunomedicine against
a novel immunomodulatory target found on a restricted set of myeloid
cells in the tumor microenvironment and on certain tumor types including
lung, ovarian and head and neck cancers. Preclinical research shows that
S15 promotes the survival and differentiation of suppressive myeloid
cells and negatively regulates T cell function, allowing cancer growth.
In preclinical studies, NC318 blocks the negative effects of S15. NC318
is a first-in-class immunomedicine that has the potential to treat
multiple cancer types.
About FIND-IO™
The FIND-IO™ platform is designed to identify
novel cell surface molecular interactions that drive functional immune
responses in the tumor microenvironment and other disease sites.
NextCure has developed proprietary approaches to assess immune pathways
in primary immune cells and established cell lines from immune lineages,
including T cells, NK cells, macrophages, myeloid-derived suppressor
cells, dendritic cells, as well as cancer cells. NextCure is utilizing
FIND-IO™ technology to identify targets that impact immune function,
addressing the major challenge of supplying next generation
immunomedicines for patients that do not respond to current cancer
therapies.
About NextCure
NextCure is a biopharmaceutical company
focused on discovering and developing next generation first-in-class
immunomedicines for cancer and other diseases. Our novel FIND-IO™
discovery technology identifies targets based on immunomodulatory
function and on which the company is building a proprietary pipeline of
immunomedicines. Our initial focus is to bring hope and new treatments
to patients who do not respond to current cancer therapies. www.nextcure.com
NextCure Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Statements
made in this press release that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "believes,"
"intends," and similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from
those projected in any forward-looking statement. Specifically, there
are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those anticipated, such as NextCure’s ability to
raise additional capital, and risks related to NextCure’s ability to
initiate, and enroll patients in, planned clinical trials. Further,
there can be no assurance of the results of any clinical trial with
NC318. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking
statements. NextCure assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking
statements.
