Abhay Joshi, president and CEO of Alvine, said: “We are very pleased to add Abbott as an investor in Alvine. With the support of all our investors, we are committed to developing ALV003, our lead product candidate, as a novel therapeutic agent with the potential to treat celiac disease.”
ALV003 is an orally administered mixture of two recombinant proteases engineered to degrade gluten into non-immunogenic fragments, by targeting the glutamine and proline residues that are common in gluten. ALV003 consists of a glutamine specific cysteine protease (EP-B2) and a proline specific prolyl endopeptidase (PEP).
Alvine’s current investors inlcude Interwest Partners, Panorama Capital, Prospect Venture Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, Black River Asset Management and Flagship Ventures in the company’s Series A Extension financing. However, the terms of the investment were not disclosed.