Forbion co-leads €40 million Series A in Dualyx

Naarden, The Netherlands and Munich, Germany, 15 May, 2023 – Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announces that it has co-led the closing of €40 ($44) million Series A financing in Dualyx NV. Dualyx, a Ghent based biotech, is developing next generation immune modulators. Other new investors include Fountain Healthcare Partners and Andera Partners. Existing investors BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), V-Bio Ventures, PMV, VIB, HTGF, and GFF also contributed to the round. Forbion Partner Juliette Audet will join Dualyx’s Board as non-executive director.

Dualyx’s lead program DT-001 targets the highly attractive TNF receptor 2 (TNFR2), widely regarded as a master control switch in immune modulation. Through state-of-the-art antibody development, Dualyx has developed an agonist to the receptor which shows highly selective activation of regulatory T cells (Tregs). To date, promising results have been observed from pre-clinical research with DT-001 and investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies have started. DT-001 holds promise to be a game-changing treatment option for a broad range of autoimmune diseases. The funds will be used to progress Dualyx’s DT-001 program into its early clinical proof-of-concept (PoC) phase. The company has a pipeline of additional Treg focused programs in early-stage development.

Juliette Audet, Partner at Forbion, said “Dualyx's expertise in antibody technology and Treg biology allowed them to develop innovative T-reg approaches for a broad range of autoimmune diseases. Our investment in Dualyx is representative of our Forbion Ventures strategy, helping to translate innovative science to clinical PoC and supporting strong teams in the European ecosystem. We are pleased to back Dualyx as they develop these exciting Tregs assets.”

“Attracting the expertise and support of top tier investors to Dualyx highlights the potential of the work to date in our DT-001 program and more importantly, completes our high-quality international investor base. I am confident that the support of our new board will enable progress with our highly promising TNFR2 program, and ultimately our goal of addressing hard-to-treat autoimmune diseases,” added Wouter Verhoeven, CEO of Dualyx.

Dualyx was founded two years ago by CSO Luc Van Rompaey, in a collaborative model with Wurzburg University, Argenx, VIB, Ghent University and KU Leuven. The company has been supported to date by a EUR 7 million seed round from Forbion joint venture partner BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), V-Bio Ventures, , PMV, VIB, HTGF, and GFF.

Read the Dualyx company release here.