(image: Korea Bizwire)
Paris, France, Nov. 1 (Korea Bizwire) - Jeito Capital (“Jeito”), a leading independent international private equity firm dedicated to biopharma, announced today that it has participated in the $120 million financing of Human Immunology Biosciences (HI-Bio™), a clinical-stage biotech company developing targeted therapies for patients suffering from severe immune-mediated diseases (IMD). Jeito Capital joins a syndicate of world class investors including ARCH Venture Partners and Monograph Capital in backing the San Francisco-based company.
The investment in HI-Bio is Jeito’s 11th to date and its first in the United States, demonstrating the fund’s ambition to build a global and diverse portfolio of companies operating in numerous therapeutic areas of unmet need for patients and at different stages of development (from pre-clinical to advanced clinical-stage).
HI-Bio has multiple clinical-stage programs and a strong translational platform with the potential to address several diseases with unmet medical needs. Few targeted therapies exist for patients affected by IMDs, which include autoimmune, allergic and inflammatory diseases. Conventional therapies are generally broad-acting and do not address the root cause of disease. As a result, many patients with IMDs experience limited relief from symptoms and may experience unnecessary side effects.
Nearly 4% of the world’s population is potentially affected by one of these diseases, and more than half of those treated with currently available therapies are not in remission. With such large unmet medical patient need, the global therapeutic market for these diseases could reach $150 billion by 2025.
Many IMDs stem from the dysfunction of cells that make up the immune system, including plasma cells, neutrophils, mast cells and more. These cells are responsible for critical functions and processes, including the secretion of antibodies, signaling mediators, and tissue repair and allergic responses. HI-Bio’s programs apply a precision medicine approach to target, modulate or deplete these cellular drivers of disease with therapeutics.
Dr Rafaèle Tordjman, founder and CEO of Jeito, commented: “Jeito’s investment in HI-Bio, alongside distinguished investors such as ARCH Venture Partners and Monograph Capital, represents an important step as we make our first investment in the United States, further demonstrating our ambition to support international companies developing groundbreaking therapies in areas of high unmet need. HI-Bio is launching with a team of renowned experts with impressive track records and a pipeline of precision therapies that have the potential to address unmet patient needs around the world today.”
Rachel Mears, Partner at Jeito, added: “Jeito’s investment supports the important work by HI-Bio on behalf of patients suffering from immune-mediated diseases. The potential to reduce the enormous health burden for these patients using HI-Bio’s precision medicine approach was a key motivator for this investment. With HI-Bio’s ongoing clinical programs and its strong pipeline of additional development candidates, Jeito’s strategy to invest behind strong teams founded on great science and positioned for growth driven by making a difference for patients fits hand-in-hand with HI-Bio.”
Travis Murdoch, M.D., CEO of HI-Bio concluded: “We at HI-Bio are an embodiment of the urgent need to develop precision therapies that are more targeted for patients suffering from immune-mediated diseases. Immune-mediated diseases represent a landscape where the scale of unmet need and potential patient benefit is truly enormous. We are grateful to our investors Jeito Capital, ARCH and Monograph who share our vision for HI-Bio. They see that we have an actionable opportunity to bring an unprecedented degree of precision and creativity to clinical immunology, with all the potential safety and efficacy enhancements that come with our approach.”
About Jeito Capital
Jeito Capital is a global leading investment company with a patient benefit driven approach that finances and accelerates the development and growth of ground-breaking medical innovation. Jeito empowers and supports entrepreneurs through its expert, integrated, multi-talented team and through the investment of significant capital to ensure the growth of companies, building market leaders in their respective therapeutic areas with accelerated patients’ access globally, especially in Europe and the United States. Jeito Capital has €534 million under management and a rapidly growing portfolio of investments. Jeito Capital is based in Paris with a presence in Europe and the United States.
@Jeito_lifeLinkedIn For more information, please visit www.jeito.life, or follow @Jeito_life on Twitter or LinkedIn.
For further information please contact :
Jeito Capital
Rafaèle Tordjman
Assia Mouhout, PA
assia@jeito.life
Tel : +33 6 76 49 37 94
Consilium Strategic Communications
Mary-Jane Elliott / Davide Salvi / Kris Lam
Jeito@consilium-comms.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3709 5700
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Source: Jeito Capital via GLOBE NEWSWIRE
