Elektrofi Secures $40 Million in Series B Funding For Drug Delivery Development

Boston-based biotechnology company Elektrofi announced it received $40 million in Series B financing to continue developing its drug formulation and delivery program. The funds will also establish Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) capabilities to expand its development pipeline and provide the framework for upcoming clinical trials. 

Developing New Drug Delivery Technology

In a landscape filled with therapeutic development, Elektrofi strays from the pack by focusing primarily on new drug delivery methods. The company says its breakthrough formulation platform provides solutions for the unmet needs of stabilized, highly concentrated biologics. 

Elektrofi’s goal is to provide an alternative to laborious intravenous therapies that they claim can cause patient discomfort, increased risk of infection, and more costly healthcare bills. By designing high-concentration, low-volume protein formulations to be administered by subcutaneous injection, Elektrofi hopes to remediate these issues and provide simpler, more agreeable, and cheaper therapy delivery. 

Due to their high viscosity, most protein formulations become unusable at concentrations greater than 200 mg/mL. As a result of its drug delivery development program, Elektrofi says it has formulated viable protein concentrations at more than 400 mg/mL without exceeding viscosity limits and keeping all biologic agents intact. This breakthrough could allow researchers to develop more compact therapies that pack the same punch as traditional delivery methods.

CEO and Co-founder of Elektrofi, Chase Coffman, said, “This financing sets the stage for advancement of multiple lead programs to human trials, clinical validation of Elektrofi’s high concentration technology, and pipeline expansion in response to significant inbound platform interest.”

In addition to expanding its pipeline and setting out on clinical trials, Elektrofi says it will allocate funds to double the number of employees over the next 12-18 months to accelerate the development of its growing programs. 

Related Article: Series A Funding Successfully Wraps Up for Two Up-and-Coming Biotechs

Keeping the Momentum Going

Starting in 2016, Elektrofi has skyrocketed through the ranks with multiple partnerships and milestones in the last few years. Its first partnership with LEO Pharma, a 100-year-old Danish company, resulted in an undisclosed amount of funding to research high-concentration, low-volume formulations of investigational monoclonal antibodies. 

Since then, Elektrofi has teamed up with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Argenx, and ImmunoPrecise Antibodies (IPA). In its most recent collaboration with IPA, announced on March 14, Elektrofi said the two companies would work together to develop a low-volume formulation of IPA’s COVID-19 antibody cocktail, PolyTope TATX-03. 

Marshall Wace and BVF Partners led the $40 million Series B funding with the help of Janus Henderson and Logos Capital. The multimillion-dollar financing is a huge step forward for Elektrofi. With such a meteoric rise so far, the industry is sure to keep an eye on the company and its potentially groundbreaking drug delivery development.

Author

Reed Slater