Novo Holdings invests in US$105 million Series C Funding of Alentis Therapeutics

• Alentis Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech developing breakthrough treatments for organ fibrosis and Claudin-1 (CLDN1) positive tumors
• Funding to advance clinical development of two first-in-class anti-CLDN1 antibodies and the platform to engineer CLDN1 antibody drug conjugates (ADC) and bi-specific antibodies
• Series C led by Jeito Capital together with Novo Holdings and RA Capital Management
• Naveed Siddiqi, Senior Partner at Novo Holdings, joins the Board of Directors

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, April 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Novo Holdings A/S, a leading international life sciences investor, today announced it has participated in a new investment in the US$105 million Series C financing of Alentis Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech developing breakthrough treatments for organ fibrosis and Claudin-1 (CLDN1) positive tumors. The financing will support clinical development of Alentis' lead investigational products ALE.F02 and ALE.C04  as well as the CLDN1 platform development.

"We are absolutely delighted to welcome Novo Holdings as our investor and Naveed Siddiqi to join the Board of Directors ," said Dr. Roberto Iacone, CEO at Alentis Therapeutics. "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."

Naveed Siddiqi, Senior Partner at Novo Holdings, said, "The Venture Investments team of Novo Holdings has an extensive track record of backing high quality biotechs across Europe and the US, developing novel treatments for unmet medical needs. Alentis has pioneered a world leading position in the CLDN1 space and is led by highly capable drug developers. We were encouraged by exciting emerging pre-clinical data in oncology and the potential of CLDN1 targeted therapeutics to treat a wide range of cancers where CLDN1 is highly expressed.  We are looking forward to supporting Alentis as it further advances its pipeline in the clinic with the proceeds of this round."

Novo Holdings'  Ventures Investment team has made several prior biotech investments in Switzerland and has a high regard for its innovation ecosystem.

Alentis has made major strides in the last two years: the ALE.F02 MAD study completion is imminent; it has clearly defined the CLDN1+ cancer patient population, including T-cell excluded cancers to develop ALE.C04 in oncology; established the platform to engineer CLDN1 antibody drug conjugates and bi-specific antibodies that the Series C will help to further develop; and is expanding its team of top talent.

The funding round was led by Jeito Capital together with Novo Holdings A/S and RA Capital Management and participation from existing investors including BB Pureos Bioventures, Bpifrance through its InnoBio Fund 2, and Schroders Capital.

About Alentis Therapeutics

Alentis Therapeutics, the CLDN1 company, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that focuses on developing breakthrough treatments for CLDN1+ tumors and organ fibrosis.  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.

Alentis is the only company developing potential treatments for solid cancers and fibrosis targeting CLDN1.  The company was founded in 2019 based on ground-breaking research in the laboratory of Prof. Thomas Baumert MD at the University of Strasbourg and the French National Institute of Health (Inserm). Alentis is headquartered in Basel's pharma-biotech hub in Switzerland with an R&D subsidiary in Strasbourg, France and clinical operations in the US.

About Novo Holdings

Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

The purpose of Novo Holdings is to improve people's health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk and Novozymes (the Novo Group companies) and manages an investment portfolio with a long-term return perspective. The investment portfolio comprises two teams including Life Science Investments and Capital Investments. The Life Science Investments team invests in companies at all stages of development and includes Seed Investments, Venture Investments, Growth Investments and Principal Investments. The Capital Investments team manages a broad portfolio of equities, bonds, real estate and infrastructure assets, as well as private equity investments.

Novo Holdings operates out of offices in Copenhagen, London, Boston, San Francisco, Singapore and Shanghai. As of year-end 2022, Novo Holdings had total assets of USD 108 billion. Further information: www.novoholdings.dk.

SOURCE Novo Holdings