Versant Ventures recently launched and allocated a $30 million Series A commitment to biopharmaceutical company Vector BioPharma AG, a press release reported.
It serves as the company’s most recent launch out of Versant’s Ridgeline Discovery Engine based in Basel, Switzerland.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Lorenz, Andreas and the team to advance Vector’s rationally designed gene delivery technology,” said Alex Mayweg, Ph.D., managing director at Versant and a Vector board member. “With its platform and growing pipeline, the company is positioned to fundamentally advance the field of genetic medicine and treat important diseases.”
Developed by Andreas Plückthun, Ph.D., the platform specializes in issues related to payload delivery, genetic cargo packaging limitations and negative immunogenic reactions, integrating high-capacity virus-like particles with designed, exogenous, high-avidity adapter proteins. Its technological solutions are credited with improving the safety, efficacy and specificity of biologics, cell and gene therapies.
“Our platform has significant advantages thanks to the unprecedented size of cargo that can be delivered, our proprietary capsid shielding technology and our ability to precisely target virtually any cell surface epitope,” said CEO Lorenz Mayr, Ph.D. “We are confident that our approach will offer patients therapies with improved safety, efficacy and specificity.”
The platform integrates high-capacity virus-like particles with designed, exogenous, high-avidity adapter proteins, making it safe for the immune system to ensure a safe delivery of various gene cassettes.
“The vectors are devoid of viral genes and thus offer reduced immunogenicity, while the adapters precisely direct delivery of DNA-encoding therapeutics to defined epitopes on target cells or tissues,” the press release explains.
“Versant has made several important investments in genetic medicine, including founding Crispr Therapeutics, and we believe that Vector represents a new wave of innovation in this space,” Markus Enzelberger, Ph.D., partner at Versant and a Vector board member, said.