20 December 2018 - - US-based biopharmaceutical company Annexon Biosciences has closed a USD 75m Series C financing, the company said.

The financing was led by new investor Bain Capital Life Sciences, with participation by Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), and Adage Capital Partners.

Existing investors, including NEA, Blackstone Life Sciences, Novartis Venture Fund and Satter Investment Management, also participated in the round.

Annexon's lead programs are ANX005, a monoclonal antibody drug candidate designed for treatment in autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases, and ANX007 IVT, an antigen binding fragment drug candidate designed for use in ophthalmic settings, currently in Phase 1b proof-of-principle studies that are expected to read out in 2019.

Annexon Biosciences is creating and developing proprietary therapeutic products that modulate the classical complement pathway.

Its pipeline is based on breakthrough research showing that the initiating molecule of the classical pathway, C1q, stimulates an immune-mediated attack that causes cell loss and tissue damage in a broad array of autoimmune, neurodegenerative and ophthalmic disorders.