The Gates Foundation is part of $35 million in financing going to a Philly-area biotech
Radiant Biotherapeutics, whose labs are located in Toronto, aims to use the financing to pursue its signature technology, an engineered antibody that targets cancer, COVID, and HIV.
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A biotech company with plans to expand its presence in the Philadelphia area has received $35 million in new financing, led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a Canadian venture capital firm.
The funding is intended to develop its signature technology, a compound that’s engineered to bind to multiple sites on its disease target, giving it a much stronger hold, along with a stronger biological effect. The therapy could be used in treatment for a wide range of diseases, including HIV and cancer.
Radiant Biotherapeutics has labs in Toronto. President and CEO Arthur J. Fratamico works out of West Chester, where the company has its only U.S. office and plans to hire more managers.
The Gates Foundation has made more than 100 investments in “game-changing developments” in the fields that are the focus of its philanthropy, including life sciences. “Funding biotech organizations is not a new initiative for the foundation,” a spokesperson said. (Radiant received $2 million in grant funding from the Gates Foundation in 2023.)
The new round of financing is a sign of confidence in the company’s technology, said Fratamico, who declined to specify how much of the $35 million comes specifically from the Gates Foundation. “I would say a substantial amount.”
The company’s signature technology, the Multabody, works by leveraging the key foot soldiers of the body’s immune system — antibodies — to target disease. But unlike other antibody therapies (such as monoclonal antibodies, which have been used to treat COVID-19), the Multabody carries multiple sites that can bind to different places on its desired target.
A typical antibody only has two sites it can use to bind to a target. But the Multabody has been engineered to have 24 binding sites, giving it a stronger, more secure hold. “And in doing that, we can go after targets that a traditional antibody may not be able to go after,” Fratamico said.
Current targets include cancer, COVID-19, and HIV.
Part of what makes HIV such a tough thing to target is that it mutates rapidly. But that’s also what makes the Multabody so effective against HIV, said Fratamico — because the Multabody has 24 binding sites, it can be engineered to bind to different targets on the virus. So if one target mutates, the Multabody can still have an effect on the others. “So it’s very promising.”
The company continues to test the Multabody in animals, and plans to be able to start using it in humans in 2026, said Fratamico.
For the past few years, Fratamico has been the company’s only employee who is not based in Canada. “It’s a little different,” he admitted. But it won’t be that way for long — the company plans to add more management positions in the Philadelphia area, including someone to focus on business development.
Philadelphia is a natural location for the company’s only U.S. office, Fratamico said, because of how many residents have expertise from working for nearby pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck, GSK, and Bristol Myers Squibb. “There’s a tremendous amount of experience that resides within the greater Philadelphia area.”