Published : 7 years ago, on 09/06/2018

FOSTER CITY, Calif.- SutroVax, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the delivery of best-in-class conjugate vaccines and novel complex antigen-based vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases, today announced the closing of an upsized $85 million Series C financing led by new investor TPG Growth, the global middle market and growth equity platform of TPG. Other new investors include Medicxi and Foresite Capital. All of SutroVax’s existing institutional investors, including Abingworth, Longitude Capital, Frazier Health Care Partners, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Roche Venture Fund, and CTI Life Sciences Fund also participated in the financing.

Proceeds of the financing will be used to advance the company’s potentially best-in-class broad-spectrum pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) candidate through mid-stage clinical development and continue to expand its pipeline of novel vaccines.

SutroVax’s PCV is designed to prevent invasive pneumococcal disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and is uniquely positioned to significantly expand protection against circulating strains of pneumococcus.

SutroVax is also announcing a strategic contractual relationship with Lonza Pharma & Biotech, one of the world’s leading contract manufacturers of complex biologics, to manufacture its PCV program via an end-to-end supply relationship. The parties have established strong alignment on process and conjugation development, as well as microbial manufacturing scale-up for drug substance at Lonza’sVisp, Switzerland, site. This close technical collaboration between SutroVax and Lonza will support the successful delivery of this potentially best-in-class vaccine to the clinic as efficiently as possible and to streamline its advance to the market.

“Assembling growth capital with world-class manufacturing capabilities enhances our ability to bring to market a better version of the best-selling vaccine of all time and provides the building blocks for the company to mature into a fully integrated vaccine company,” said Grant Pickering, CEO and Founder of SutroVax. “Furthermore, we are delighted to welcome Dr. MoncefSlaoui to the Chairman role, where his experience building GSK into the world’s leading vaccine company will serve us well as we work to deliver on the vast potential of this opportunity. We also want to thank Kurt von Emster for his Chairmanship over the past three years, while the company delivered on its initial vision and fortified its position raising over $170M in equity capital.”

In conjunction with the closing of the financing, Heath Lukatch, Ph.D., Partner at TPG, will join the SutroVax Board of Directors and Francesco de Rubertis, Ph.D., Founding Partner of Medicxi, will join as a Board Observer.

“SutroVax’s unique technology has the potential to disrupt the conjugated vaccine space,” said Lukatch. “The company’s ability to create high-valency vaccines with strong immunogenicity is what attracted TPG Growth to this deal. We believe that SutroVax’s PCV program is well positioned to dramatically improve on the current standard of care for prevention of pneumococcal disease, offering the opportunity to replace existing pneumococcal vaccines used in both infants and adults.”

MoncefSlaoui, Ph.D. commented, “After almost a year as an independent board member, I have come to fully appreciate the huge potential of SutroVax’s PCV program. I am thrilled to take on the Chairman role and I am confident we will advance this program to a clear clinical proof of concept and ultimately make it available for broad use.”

“The marriage of this state-of-the art vaccine with broad organizational alignment between our two companies is a perfect fit with our strategy of being one of the world’s leading, integrated value-added solution providers,” said Karen Fallen, VP, Business Unit Head Clinical Development & Manufacturing. “Lonza’s expertise in complex molecule development, microbial production and conjugation capabilities, along with our commercial production presence, will support delivery of this important vaccine for SutroVax at this critical phase in the lifecycle of their company.”