Nimbus Therapeutics, a developer of medicines through computational drug discovery, announced Monday that it has closed $125 million in private financing.

Bain Capital Life Sciences and SV Health Investors led the funding round. The company, founded about 13 years ago, has received more than $1 billion, including from investors like Bill Gates, Access Biotechnology and Atlas Venture, said CEO Jeb Keiper in an interview.

Nimbus, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will leverage the funds in several ways, including supporting its ongoing clinical trials, Keiper said. Its molecule called NDI-034858, an oral allosteric tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor, is in two phase 2b clinical trials with 250 to 260 patients. One of the trials is to treat psoriasis, which is a condition that causes cells to build up and create scales and itchy dry patches. The other is for psoriatic arthritis, which is a type of inflammatory arthritis linked to psoriasis.

“The psoriasis trial will actually read out in the fourth quarter of this year and we anticipate next year starting a phase 3 set of programs for psoriasis, so that is one of the major uses of this funding,” Keiper said. “We will continue to operate our psoriatic arthritis trial, which should read out next year. We’ll have to see the results from that but we’re optimistic.” 

A readout refers to when a company releases results from a clinical trial, which can be done by publishing in a journal, presenting at a conference, issuing a press release or other ways.

In addition to these trials for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, Nimbus is going to use the funding to start additional phase 2b trials for NDI-034858 in conditions like lupus and irritable bowel diseases. The money will also support ongoing phase 1/2 clinical trials of NDI-101150, the company’s hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) inhibitor. This is being studied for use in patients with solid tumors, Keiper said.

“We should be expanding that study to probably a few 100 patients next year,” he said. “We’ve shared a lot of preclinical data on that program, and that’s our excitement behind it. We haven’t shared clinical data yet. We imagine we’ll start to share that next year.”

The company’s expansive portfolio was one reason that led SV Health Investors to fund it.

“We’re proud to lead this financing round to advance Nimbus’ exciting pipeline of clinical and preclinical candidates,” said Nikola Trbovic, partner at SV Health Investors, in a news release. “Nimbus has a remarkable track record of success in discovering and developing differentiated small molecule therapies to address substantial unmet medical needs, and we’re excited to support their current portfolio of programs.”

Other companies in the same space as Nimbus include Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), which created a TYK2 inhibitor, and Pfizer, which has an HPK1 inhibitor. BMS announced Friday its drug received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Pfizer’s drug for solid tumors is in development. 

Photo: Nimbus Therapeutics