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British Patient Capital announces investment into Myricx Bio as part of a £90m Series A financing round

Press release 08 July 2024

British Patient Capital today announces it has made an investment into London-based life sciences company Myricx Bio (‘Myricx’), as part of the company’s £90m Series A financing round.

The round was co-led by life science investors Novo Holdings and Abingworth. New investors Cancer Research Horizons and Eli Lilly and Company also participated, alongside founding investors Brandon Capital and Sofinnova Partners. British Patient Capital’s investment has been made through the £425m Future Fund: Breakthrough programme.

Myricx is a private UK biotech spun out of Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute. The company is focused on the discovery and development of a novel payload class for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), acting through a differentiated mechanism to existing therapies. ADCs enable the precise delivery of potent drugs to targeted cells, effectively reducing collateral damage to the body compared to traditional systemic treatments.

The company’s payload platform is based on small molecule N-Myristoyltransferase inhibitors (NMTi). NMT is an enzyme that adds a specific post-translational modification, which is critical to the function and localisation of over 150 proteins, many of which are critical to cancer cell survival. The funds raised will be used to build out Myricx’s platform and to advance two of its NMTi-ADC candidates, targeting clinically validated tumour associated antigens through clinical proof of concept.

Myricx is a standout UK company, with impressive pre-clinical data in a commercially attractive sector. We are delighted to join this high-quality syndicate to support clinical entry of the company’s two lead candidates and bring novel treatment options to patients with serious unmet needs in oncology a step closer.

- Ian Connatty Managing Director, Direct and Co-investment, British Patient Capital

Myricx is pioneering NMTi, an orthogonal and differentiated mechanism to current ADC payloads. We believe this approach has potential to offer treatment options to a wide range of patients, including those that are refractory to current therapies. We are excited to be working with the Myricx team and syndicate on the next chapter of this journey.

- Carmine Circelli Director, Life Sciences, British Patient Capital

I am truly grateful for the support of our founding investors Brandon Capital and Sofinnova Partners as we developed our initial NMT inhibitor chemistry and demonstrated the potential of NMTis as ADCs. I am delighted to welcome our new investors and thank them for their support as we enter our next phase of development. Myricx now has the resources to grow into a fully-fledged R&D company with our own laboratories, and an in-house R&D team with expanded management capabilities. Consequently, we are well positioned to build on our NMTi ADC platform and advance our pipeline as we become a clinical stage company.

- Dr Robin Carr CEO, Myricx Bio

Further Information

Notes to editors

About British Patient Capital

British Patient Capital Limited is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large-scale businesses. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has more than £3bn of assets under management, investing in venture and venture growth capital to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. 

British Business Bank plc and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

British Patient Capital makes commitments and invests on its own behalf and on behalf of third-party investors whose investments British Patient Capital manages.

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party in respect of Myricx Bio or its products or services.

About Myricx Bio

Myricx Bio (“Myricx”) is a UK biotech company focused on the discovery and development of a completely novel class of payloads for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), based on inhibitors of N-Myristoyltransferases (NMT) for the treatment of cancer.

NMT is an enzyme that adds a specific lipid modification to a number of protein targets that are key to cancer cell survival. Myricx is advancing a pipeline of ADCs to address serious unmet needs in oncology based on its NMT inhibitor (NMTi) payload chemistry platform and has demonstrated excellent preclinical efficacy and safety across multiple solid tumour-associated antigens and cancer cell types.

Based in London, Myricx is a spin out from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute with investment from Abingworth, Brandon Capital Partners, British Patient Capital, Cancer Research Horizons, Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Holdings, and Sofinnova Partners.

For more information, please visit Myricx Bio.

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