Fewer side-effects: How we deliver drugs to tumor cells
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Great relief after the contract was signed: Ingo Lehrke, Christian Hackenberger, Marc-André Kasper, Dominik Schumacher and Jonas Helma-Smets.
Tubulis has a set of proprietary technologies for producing novel and particularly stable antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Their portfolio enables the company to link a wide range of drugs to an antibody specific to the relevant indication by way of stable coupling (conjugation). One positive aspect of this is that adverse side effects in healthy tissue can be minimized, since biophysical properties of the ADC are optimized and the drug is prevented from separating from the antibody prematurely, a common side effect from current compounds on the market. In addition, the company’s proprietary technologies offer the potential to generate previously inaccessible protein-drug combinations, enabling a broader therapeutic window.
“Our research group is very proud to be part of Tubulis’ success story. Together with Prof. Heinrich Leonhardt’s group at LMU München, we have developed new methods to generate the novel ADCs that form the scientific basis that Tubulis uses. Closing the Series B round is a big step forward and the proceeds will enable the company to deliver the true therapeutic potential of ADCs through further innovation of novel payload classes and identification of new cancer targets.” remarks Professor Dr. Christian Hackenberger, Head of Chemical Biology at the FMP and Leibniz-Humboldt Professor at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and co-founder of Tubulis.
“This funding emphasizes that Tubulis is uniquely positioned to consolidate the findings of the last 20 years in the ADC field and translate this understanding into meaningful therapeutic benefits for patients. We have reached an important inflection point in the development of our platform technologies as well as our pipeline of highly novel protein-drug conjugates and we are now focused on unlocking new avenues in the treatment of solid tumors bringing safe and effective ADCs to patients,” said Dominik Schumacher, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Tubulis. “With this capital in place, we will execute on our growth strategy, including important focus areas for our pipeline and for how we can apply our proprietary technologies, biologic insights and new mechanisms of action to enable the true therapeutic value inherent in targeted therapeutics.”
In conjunction with the round, Sofia Ioannidou, PhD, Partner at Andera Partners, Thomas Hanke, PhD, EVP, Head of Academic Partnerships at Evotec as well as Jan Van den Bossche, Partner at Fund+ will join Tubulis’ Board of Directors consisting of Sebastian Pünzeler, PhD, Principal at coparion, Dominik Schumacher, PhD, CEO of Tubulis and Christian Grøndahl, MD, DVM, PhD, MBA, the Chairman of the Board. In addition, Valentin Piëch, PhD, Partner at BioMedPartners will take over the board seat from Michael Wacker, PhD, General Partner at BioMedPartners.
Tubulis was founded as a spin-off of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) in Berlin and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München in 2019.
Tubulis has a set of proprietary technologies for producing novel and particularly stable antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Their portfolio enables the company to link a wide range of drugs to an antibody specific to the relevant indication by way of stable coupling (conjugation). One positive aspect of this is that adverse side effects in healthy tissue can be minimized, since biophysical properties of the ADC are optimized and the drug is prevented from separating from the antibody prematurely, a common side effect from current compounds on the market. In addition, the company’s proprietary technologies offer the potential to generate previously inaccessible protein-drug combinations, enabling a broader therapeutic window.
“Our research group is very proud to be part of Tubulis’ success story. Together with Prof. Heinrich Leonhardt’s group at LMU München, we have developed new methods to generate the novel ADCs that form the scientific basis that Tubulis uses. Closing the Series B round is a big step forward and the proceeds will enable the company to deliver the true therapeutic potential of ADCs through further innovation of novel payload classes and identification of new cancer targets.” remarks Professor Dr. Christian Hackenberger, Head of Chemical Biology at the FMP and Leibniz-Humboldt Professor at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and co-founder of Tubulis.
“This funding emphasizes that Tubulis is uniquely positioned to consolidate the findings of the last 20 years in the ADC field and translate this understanding into meaningful therapeutic benefits for patients. We have reached an important inflection point in the development of our platform technologies as well as our pipeline of highly novel protein-drug conjugates and we are now focused on unlocking new avenues in the treatment of solid tumors bringing safe and effective ADCs to patients,” said Dominik Schumacher, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Tubulis. “With this capital in place, we will execute on our growth strategy, including important focus areas for our pipeline and for how we can apply our proprietary technologies, biologic insights and new mechanisms of action to enable the true therapeutic value inherent in targeted therapeutics.”
In conjunction with the round, Sofia Ioannidou, PhD, Partner at Andera Partners, Thomas Hanke, PhD, EVP, Head of Academic Partnerships at Evotec as well as Jan Van den Bossche, Partner at Fund+ will join Tubulis’ Board of Directors consisting of Sebastian Pünzeler, PhD, Principal at coparion, Dominik Schumacher, PhD, CEO of Tubulis and Christian Grøndahl, MD, DVM, PhD, MBA, the Chairman of the Board. In addition, Valentin Piëch, PhD, Partner at BioMedPartners will take over the board seat from Michael Wacker, PhD, General Partner at BioMedPartners.
Tubulis was founded as a spin-off of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) in Berlin and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München in 2019.
The Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) is part of the Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FVB), which legally represents seven non-university research institutes - members of the Leibniz Association - in Berlin.
Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FMP)
Campus Berlin-Buch
Robert-Roessle-Str. 10,
13125 Berlin, Germany
