PetMedix closes £27m round close to propel pipeline through the clinic

PetMedix has completed an oversubscribed £27m Series B financing round that will be used to advance its innovative pipeline through clinical development.

Since being spun out the lab of Prof Allan Bradley in 2018, PetMedix has established itself as a leader in the emerging companion animal antibody field and is currently the only group capable of making mature, fully species-specific antibodies.

Two new investors participated in the round, which shifts PetMedix from an R&D-stage, UK-focused biotech company into a clinical-stage international organisation. They are global technology company Tencent and Japanese corporation Kyoritsu Holdings. They join Parkwalk Advisors and Cambridge Innovation Capital, plus US-based investor Digitalis Ventures.

“It’s an exciting time for PetMedix,” Dr Tom Weaver, PetMedix CEO and co-founder, says. “We’ve delivered on all of our Series A goals by building this incredible team, putting together this unrivalled drug discovery engine, and getting multiple internal programmes under way.

“We are now focusing on clinical development on the path to regulatory approval, and ultimately to bringing much-needed innovative therapies to companion animals.”

The recent completion of PetMedix’s Ky9 platform marks the single largest transfer of DNA from one species to another, not involving human DNA, as to date PetMedix scientists have engineered 5.5Mbp of dog and cat genomic sequence into the Ky9 and Felyne platforms respectively.

The Ky9 platform alone has so far generated 50,000 fully canine, antigen-specific antibodies. This depth and diversity of target-specific antibodies allows PetMedix scientists to be meticulous in every step of the discovery pipeline, ensuring only the highest-quality therapeutic candidates advance into the clinic.

Alastair Kilgour, CIO at Parkwalk Advisors, who co-led the funding round with Digitalis, said: “PetMedix has made incredible progress in this field over the past few years – developing a platform to create canine- and feline-specific antibodies to treat various diseases and illnesses.

“Parkwalk is proud to have backed the team from the start, and to be doubling down on that backing in this latest round, and we look forward to watching them continue to innovate and grow through this exciting next phase for the business.”

Read more

PetMedix: Bringing antibody therapies to cats and dogs