Sanofi-backed Abcuro has secured $200 million in series C funds to power its anti-KLRG1 antibody through a phase 2/3 muscle disease trial ahead of a planned push to regulators.
Abcuro is targeting KLRG1 to drive the depletion of cytotoxic T cells in autoimmune diseases. While other players in the space are targeting CD25, CD2, CD52 and ICOS with the same goal in mind, Abcuro has been betting on KLRG1 because expression is restricted to highly cytotoxic late-differentiated effector memory and effector T cells.
The idea is that its anti-KLRG1 antibody ulviprubart, also known as ABC008, will deplete cells that drive autoimmune disease without affecting regulatory T cells and central memory T cells.
Ulviprubart is currently in a phase 2/3 trial for inclusion body myositis (IBM), a muscle wasting disease that affects about 50,000 people across the U.S. and Europe. Abcuro has a lot riding on the study, with plans to file an approval application with the FDA if the study is a success when it reads out in the first half of 2026.
To that end, the biotech is also earmarking a portion of the series C funds to prepare for a potential commercial launch of ulviprubart. Some more of the cash will be spent on expanding the company’s manufacturing capabilities.
The financing round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with new investor Foresite Capital joining a list of previous backers like Sanofi Ventures, RA Capital, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Redmile Group, Samsara BioCapital, Pontifax, Mass General Brigham Ventures, New Leaf Ventures and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, to name a few.
“Continued support from all of our investors in this latest financing round validates our vision for the potential that ulviprubart may have as a novel treatment for progressive and devastating diseases mediated by highly cytotoxic T cells, including inclusion body myositis,” Abcuro CEO Alex Martin said in a Feb. 12 release.
IBM looks like a good proving ground for ulviprubart’s potential. The disease is driven by T-cell attacks on muscle fibers that lead to loss of hand function and ability to walk. In 2019, Steven Greenberg, M.D., a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Abcuro founder, co-authored a paper that pointed to a link between KLRG1-expressing T cells and IBM.
It led Mass General Brigham Ventures to team up with Sanofi Ventures to oversee a series A-1 round back in 2021 to build on Greenberg’s research. The biotech followed this up with a $155 million series B in 2023.
As well as the later-stage study in IBM, the company is also overseeing a phase 1/2 clinical trial of ulviprubart in T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia.