Along with advancing BPT567, Bright Peak said the funds will go towards accelerating its wider pipeline. Image credit: Shutterstock / SFIO CRACHO.

Bright Peak Therapeutics has raised $90m in a Series C financing round as the biotech looks to make a name for itself in the immunoconjugate space.  

Johnson and Johnson’s (J&J) investment arm JJDC led the Series C round backing Bright Peak’s cancer treatment portfolio, which also saw participation from new investors Venrock, KB Investment, and Northleaf Capital Partners.

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Bright Peak said the funds will be used to advance its lead asset – BPT567 – into a Phase I/IIa clinical trial for the treatment of solid tumours, according to an 11 June press release. BPT567 is a PD1-IL18 immunoconjugate – an IL-18 binding protein-resistant molecule integrated with PD-1 checkpoint blockade using “antibody drug conjugate-like” technology.

The biotech, which has offices in both Switzerland and the US, claims BPT567 is the first immunoconjugate of its kind to enter the clinic. The Phase I/IIa study is slated to begin in the second half of this year.

Targeting IL-18 increases the activation and cytotoxicity of antigen-experienced effector T cells in the tumour microenvironment. Coupled with unlocking the body’s anti-tumour response via PD-1 blockade, BPT567 induced “profound synergistic anti-tumour activity” in preclinical models, according to Bright Peak.

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The biotech’s CEO Fredrik Wiklund said: “We are now well positioned to bring much-needed innovation to the field of anti-PD-1 immune-checkpoint inhibition and look forward to advancing our lead programme into the clinic later this year across multiple tumour types.”

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Along with advancing BPT567 into early trials, Bright Peak said the funds will also go towards accelerating its wider pipeline of next-generation immunotherapies.

The PD-1 inhibitor landscape is currently dominated by MSD’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo (nivolumab). Last year, Keytruda generated $25bn in sales while Opdivo accumulated $9bn in revenue.

Meanwhile, the promise of using IL-18 in cancer therapies is growing steadily. Gilead Sciences gained ground in the space when it acquired the rights to Compugen’s preclinical IL-18 binding protein programme late last year in a deal that could reach $848m.