May 3 Quick Takes: Tubulis raises €60M series B for ADC pipeline

Tubulis GmbH closed a €60 million ($63 million) series B round led by Andera Partners with participation from new investors Evotec AG (Xetra:EVT) and Fund+. The Munich-based antibody-drug conjugate company has developed TOP1 linker-payloads with improved pharmacokinetic properties, as well as conjugation chemistry for payloads that have historically been challenging to conjugate. The company’s lead program, TUB-010, is a CD30-targeting ADC in preclinical development for lymphoma. Andera Partners’ Sofia Ioannidou, Evotec’s Thomas Hanke and Fund+’s Jan Van den Bossche joined the start-up’s board in conjunction with the financing. All existing investors, including Bayern Kapital, BioMedPartners, Coparion, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Occident and Seventure Partners, participated.

Spero Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SPRO) will cease commercial initiatives for tebipenem HBr and begin exploring strategic alternatives for the antibiotic after discussions with FDA suggested the agency found the biotech’s data package insufficient to support the antibiotic’s approval to treat complicated urinary tract infections. The company will devote its resources instead to development of SPR720, which has begun a Phase II trial to treat non-tuberculous mycobacterial lung disease, and SPR206, which is in Phase I testing for multidrug-resistant, Gram-negative bacterial infections. Tebipenem HBr is under priority review, with a June 27 PDUFA date. Spero will reduce headcount by about 75%. Spero’s shares fell 64% to $1.85 Tuesday, driving the company’s market cap down to about $61 million...