Memento Medicines raised $93 million in a Series A alongside a licensing deal for MMT-205, a VEGF-Tie2 bispecific antibody that the Boston biotech is betting can outperform the drugs currently dominating retinal disease.
The company paid MabTics and Curacle an unspecified mix of cash and equity for worldwide rights to MMT-205. The asset blocks the VEGF pathway and activates the Tie2 receptor at the same time, reinforcing blood vessel integrity in the retina. Both licensor partners stand to collect undisclosed R&D, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties if the drug reaches market. CEO Naveen Daryani called it a potential “best-in-class” biologic for nAMD and DME.
What Memento’s walking into is a market Eylea and Vabysmo currently control. The Eylea franchise, Regeneron and Bayer’s flagship intravitreal injection, generated nearly $4.4 billion in the U.S. last year. Roche’s Vabysmo contributed close to $3.5 billion in U.S. sales over the same period.
The VEGF bispecific deal wave has been concentrating in oncology: Bristol Myers Squibb committed up to $11 billion to BioNTech’s PD-L1×VEGF program, and Pfizer put up a potential $6 billion for 3SBio’s. Memento’s investors are betting that the same dual-pathway logic applies just as well in the eye.
Vabysmo works by blocking Ang-2, which indirectly regulates Tie2, while MMT-205 directly activates Tie2 — that’s the mechanism bet Memento’s making. Whether direct agonism translates into better clinical outcomes than Ang-2 blockade is what IND-enabling studies, expected to start next year, will answer.
The round was co-led by Forbion, RA Capital Management, and Avego BioScience Capital, with Sanofi Ventures and Samsara BioCapital participating.
Diana Kowalski