- This new financing will support broad late-stage clinical development program for visugromab, CatalYm’s lead product candidate in cancer immunotherapy.
- After a first investment as co-lead investor in CatalYm’s €50 million series C financing (November 2022), Jeito’s new participation in this oversubscribed round, alongside new international biopharma investors, confirms CatalYm’s strong progress and potential.
Paris, France, May 29th 2024 – Jeito Capital (“Jeito”), a global leading independent private equity fund dedicated to biopharma, announces its participation in a $150 million Series D financing of its portfolio company CatalYm, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapies to fight cancer. In November 2022, Jeito co-led CatalYm’s €50 million ($49 million) Series C round, and has since provided continuous support to the Company in line with its unique investment strategy.
Jeito participated in this new oversubscribed round alongside new lead investors, Canaan Partners and Bioqube Ventures, joined by Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund, Omega Funds, Gilde Healthcare Partners and other existing investors Brandon Capital Partners, Novartis Venture Fund and Vesalius Biocapital III.
The proceeds will fund the expansion of the company’s late-stage clinical development of visugromab to earlier line of therapy to confirm visugromab as a new class of cancer immunotherapy. Visugromab is a humanized monoclonal antibody engineered to neutralize the tumor-produced Growth Differentiation Factor-15 (GDF-15). The drug candidate has already demonstrated outstanding anti-tumor activity in combination with checkpoint inhibitor treatment. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting 2024 in Chicago, CatalYm reported impressive follow-up results from its ongoing “GDFATHER” Phase 1/2a trial, demonstrating that treatment with visugromab combined with anti-PD-1 antibody nivolumab achieves compelling, deep and durable anti-tumoral activity, including several complete responses in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), urothelial cancer (UC) or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
The new participation in CatalYm’s series D round perfectly illustrates Jeito’s refinancing strategy aimed at continuously supporting portfolio companies with both a significant deployment of capital released upon milestone and a wide range of expertise provided by its collective team.
Dr. Rafaèle Tordjman, MD, PhD, Founder and CEO of Jeito Capital, said: “Since our first investment, we were convinced that CatalYm was developing a promising new therapy approach to treat cancer for the benefit of severely ill patients with no satisfying therapeutic solution. The recent and very impressive data reported by CatalYm makes us even more committed to renew our support for its talented team. This refinancing within our portfolio also demonstrates Jeito’s unique and differentiated investment model that selects, invests and accelerates the development of high-quality and cutting-edge companies in severe diseases that contributes to the emergence of breakthrough innovations addressing strong unmet needs. We look forward to continuing our work with Phil L’Huillier and the team.”
Dr. Phil L’Huillier, Managing Director and Chief Executing Officer at CatalYm, added: “This substantial raise and strong syndicate recognize our achievements as a company and emphasize the excellent results of visugromab and our broad Phase 2b clinical program. We continue to demonstrate visugromab’s potential to induce cancer remission depth and durability across multiple solid tumor indications emphasizing the substantial role visugromab could play in a novel anti-cancer therapy regimen. We are building significant momentum for CatalYm’s development strategy and look forward to the support of these high-profile new and existing international investors, who share our vision of breaking immunosuppressive barriers to improve therapeutic outcomes.”
About Jeito Capital
Jeito Capital is a global leading Private Equity fund with a patient benefit driven approach that finances and accelerates the development and growth of ground-breaking medical innovation. Jeito empowers and supports managers through its expert, integrated, multi-talented team and through the investment of significant capital to ensure the growth of companies, building market leaders in their respective therapeutic areas with accelerated patients’ access globally, especially in Europe and the United States. Jeito Capital has €534 million under management and a rapidly growing portfolio of investments. Jeito Capital is based in Paris with a presence in Europe and the United States.
For more information, please visit www.jeito.life or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.
About CatalYm
CatalYm has identified GDF-15 as a key cancer therapy resistance mechanism and is developing it as safe and efficacious immune therapy for solid tumors. GDF-15, an immunosuppressant important for feto-maternal tolerance, is hijacked by cancer cells to evade immune system attack. Visugromab, CatalYm’s lead antibody, has demonstrated durable anti-tumor efficacy with long-lasting objective responses in relapsed and refractory metastatic solid tumor patients in combination with anti-PD-1 treatment. CatalYm is now advancing to Phase 2b studies to confirm visugromab as a new class of cancer immunotherapy in a broad range of anti-cancer regimens.
For further information please contact:
Jeito Capital
Rafaèle Tordjman
Jessica Fadel, EA
jessica@jeito.life
Tel: +33 6 33 44 25 47
Maior
Stéphanie Elbaz
stephanie.elbaz@maior-conseil.com
Tel: +33 6 46 05 08 07