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news.Just Biotherapeutics, an organization dedicated to expanding global access to important protein therapeutics, announced the closing of a $14M Series A2 financing round.
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation led the financing with an $8M investment followed by $2M each from existing investors Merck, Lilly Asia Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners.
The proceeds will support the completion of new lab space, pilot plant and GMP capabilities that will enable Just to accelerate the development of lower cost biologics.
“We are grateful for this significant investment from the foundation, and for the loyal support of our Series A investors,” said Jim Thomas, CEO and co-founder of Just.
“With this infusion of capital we will complete the buildout of our integrated lab infrastructure and add critical pilot plant and GMP manufacturing capabilities to Just.”
Previously, Just was awarded grant funding from the foundation (up to $24M, over 4 years) to develop novel technologies to lower the commercial cost of monoclonal antibodies (“mAbs”) in low income markets and to develop sequence optimized broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies for low cost manufacture and improved stability.
The foundation’s equity investment will enable its partners to test new low-cost products that may have a significant impact on fighting infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest people.
The initial Series A investment of $15M by Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, LAV and ARCH was to advance development of a novel technology platform for biologic medicines.