Leto Laboratories Raises over $15 Million in Series B+ Financing Round for Protein Engineering
Published: August 4, 2021
Earlier than this, Leto Labs had completed financing from Sherpa Healthcare Partners, Med-Fine Capital, Qirong Venture Capital, and Hygeia Capital, then closed the Series B financing from Yijing Capital, Qiaojing Capital, and Changping Science Park Development in Oct. 2020. In the very next year, Leto Labs obtained a strategic investment from TopAlliance. Recognized by investors one after another, Leto Labs would like to thank its team for their dedication in innovation, existing investors for their strong support, and the new investor China Capital Management for its trust.
Founded in 2014, Leto Laboratories is an innovation and
R&D-driven biotechnology platform company. It focuses on the engineering
and process design of recombinant proteins and engages in developing
recombinant protein drugs such as polypeptides, cytokines, and enzymes. Core
technologies such as protein directional refolding and protein engineering are
adopted to address the hurdles in manufacturing and patents in biopharmaceutical
and protein product development. With
these foundational technologies, Leto Labs aims to break the foreign monopoly in
protein drug engineering and manufacturing and fill in the technological gaps that
the domestic industry is facing in this field.
Independent Innovation from Zero to One
Breaking Up Technology Monopoly
The founder of Leto Labs, Dr. Zhang Wei, completed his PhD in Medicinal
Chemistry at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of
Manchester, and his mentor is Professor Ken Douglas whose research focuses on
proteins and molecular diagnostics. Dr. Zhang then worked as a senior research
fellow studying mechanisms in cell biology in The Institute of Cancer Research.
He also conducted research on small-molecule targeted drugs in the US, before
joining Novo Nordisk back in China and a 5-year drug development there.
Dr. Zhang is the very person who led Leto Labs’ independent
development of directional protein refolding, one of the core
technologies Leto holds in hand. It uses prokaryotes to produce recombinant
proteins, then restructure them and their functions in vitro. This
technology breaks the yield and cost control limitations of utilizing eucaryotes
and it especially fits for the design and development of small-molecule protein
drugs such as polypeptides and cytokines.
Normally proteins expressed in prokaryotes are devoid of correct
folding and are thus inactive and not applicable, so it is with proteins from E.coli,
though it represents the most common and stable exogenous protein expression
system so far as prokaryotes.
Leto Laboratories, on the other hand, can efficiently refold the
denatured solid proteins (inclusion bodies) expressed by E. coli into
highly active foldable proteins with its directional refolding technology, hence
developing high value-added protein drugs at a low cost, such as semaglutide, teriparatide, interleukins, growth factors,
and other commonly known protein drugs, all can be developed in this fashion.
As a complicated and empirical process, it’s widely known that inclusion
body- based protein refolding requires years of experience in protein process development
and deep insights into protein properties. And the key to produce genetically
engineered protein products is the refolding protocol and formulation,
considering that each type of protein has its specificity, making it a major
technical barrier for prokaryotic protein process development and production.
In the past several years, Leto Laboratories has successfully
developed multiple recombinant protein drugs pipeline with independent innovation
and IPR, all made possible by its refolding technology and state-of-the-art
protein engineering and design. It also built diversified cooperation models
with many listed and prestigious pharmaceutical companies, such as joint and licensed R&D. Its pipelines include anticancer, orphan, and pediatric drugs that are
most in-demand by the market and clinical settings. Some other self-developed
pipelines have also attracted attention from a number of listed pharmaceutical
enterprises.
As the investor of this financing round, China Capital
Management said that, "We are committed to investing in excellent platform-based
and technologically-innovative companies in the field of innovative drugs. Leto
Laboratories is an ideal company with excellent innovation capabilities in
terms of polypeptides and non-antibody proteins, especially that it has
achieved great breakthroughs in multiple cytokine-based product developments".
About China Capital Management
China Capital Management Co., Ltd., wholly owned by CSC Financial Co., Ltd., was established on Jul. 31, 2009, and is one of the first securities companiesto try and make direct investments. China Capital Management has made equity investment in over 170 enterprises, managing a fund over RMB 50.5 billion according to the official record of its supervisory body.