Dievini has dug into its sack of cash to keep the lights on at Heidelberg Pharma for another year. The 36 million euro ($41 million) commitment extends Heidelberg’s runway out to mid-2023, setting the biotech up to advance its anti-BCMA antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) through a phase 1/2a clinical trial.
Heidelberg said the funding will enable it to “completely conduct” the phase 1/2a study, which recently dosed the first of the up to 36 multiple myeloma patients who are scheduled for enrollment in the phase 1 dose-escalation part of the trial. Once Heidelberg has the recommended dose, it will start enrolling 30 patients in the dose-expansion part of the study.
The target of the drug, BCMA, puts Heidelberg in one of the busiest areas of the biotech industry. The FDA approved GlaxoSmithKline’s anti-BCMA ADC in 2020 and followed up by authorizing Bristol Myers Squibb’s CAR-T cell therapy against the target last year. Johnson & Johnson, working with partner Legend Biotech, is leading a pack of companies that aim to join GSK and BMS on the BCMA market.
Despite the presence of multiple more advanced programs, Heidelberg thinks it can carve out a piece of the BCMA market. The phase 2a part of the trial will stratify patients based on their 17p deletion status, reflecting preclinical evidence that Heidelberg’s toxin, the RNA polymerase II-inhibiting amanitin, may be more effective against tumors harboring the genomic aberration.
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Dievini, the holding company of SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp, has seen enough promise in the therapy to open its wallet. The company is perhaps best known in biotech for its major role in the story of mRNA player CureVac. But CureVac is just one of nine companies listed in the fund’s current portfolio.
Hopp’s holding company is the main investor in Heidelberg and has once again put its cash on the line to support the biotech. Dievini committed up to 30 million euros to Heidelberg in March 2021, pushing its cash runway out to mid-2022. Now, Dievini has replaced the partly used 30 million euro funding deal with a new 36 million euro agreement intended to keep Heidelberg going until mid-2023.