Forbion co-leads $245 million Series A financing of Aiolos

• Series A financing round co-led by Forbion, Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, and Sofinnova Investments with additional investment from RA Capital Management.
• Aiolos Bio is focused on addressing the unmet needs of patients with respiratory and inflammatory conditions.
• Aiolos Bio will advance its lead drug candidate, AIO-001, into a Phase 2 clinical trial in moderate-to-severe asthma patients and is actively evaluating additional development opportunities.

SAN FRANCISCO AND LONDON – October 24, 2023 - Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announces that it has co-led a $245 million Series A financing in Aiolos Bio, alongside Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Sofinnova Investments with additional investment from RA Capital Management. Aiolos Bio, Inc. (“Aiolos” or “the Company”) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on addressing the unmet treatment needs of patients with respiratory and inflammatory conditions.

The financing round will enable the Company to advance its lead drug candidate, AIO-001, into a Phase 2 clinical trial in moderate-to-severe asthma patients and is actively evaluating additional development opportunities. AIO-001 is an anti-thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) monoclonal antibody that has the potential to be administered only twice per year due to its differentiated potency and long half-life. TSLP inhibition is clinically validated to reduce exacerbations of severe asthma and is the only biological approach that has demonstrated clinical benefit across all asthma endotypes. TSLP inhibition is currently being investigated for additional immune conditions like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) and Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria (CSU).

The investment in Aiolos Bio marks the sixth investment from Forbion’s second Growth Opportunities Fund which closed earlier this year at the hard cap amount of €600 million. Alongside the close of the Forbion Ventures Fund VI at €750 million, this represents Forbion’s largest fundraising to date. The fund aims to build a portfolio of highly impactful therapeutics companies and builds on the firm’s strong track record from previous Forbion Growth Opportunities funds.

Wouter Joustra, General Partner at Forbion said, “Aiolos Bio has a highly promising pipeline. Its lead asset AIO-001 has demonstrated encouraging safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and biological activity in healthy volunteers and asthma patients, with low immunogenicity. Under the leadership of Khurem Farooq, with whom we have successfully collaborated before, we are optimistic that we can make a significant contribution to treating patients suffering from severe asthma.”

In conjunction with the Company’s launch, Aiolos announced that Khurem Farooq, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer will assume the position of CEO. Prior to joining Aiolos, Khurem was Chief Executive Officer of Gyroscope Therapeutics and previously served as Senior Vice President and Head of the Immunology and Ophthalmology business unit at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. John F. Milligan, Ph.D., will join the Board of Directors as Chairman. Dr. Milligan was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer at Gilead Sciences, where during a three-decade tenure with the company, he helped grow Gilead into a multi-billion-dollar business with global operations in over 40 countries and oversaw the successful development and commercialization of over 25 new therapies.