A Greater Cincinnati startup is planning to significantly grow its capital stack with a planned eight-figure fundraise later this year, and officials are hoping to ring in some Midwest dollars this time around to combat increasing pressures to move the company’s headquarters to a bigger biotech hub.
Amplicore, a Mason-based early-stage biopharma startup developing a new pipeline of drugs to treat musculoskeletal disorders like osteoarthritis, is looking to raise a $30 million Series A by summer. The fundraise follows a $4 million seed round that closed in March 2021 led by Photon Fund and other West Coast- and Asian-based firms.
Company founder Chia-Ying "James" Lin told me the raise comes as Amplicore transitions from pre-clinical to clinical stage, a significant step. He’s hoping the Series A round will attract more local and regional investors. Midwest-based venture funds wouldn’t necessarily need to take the lead, he said, but landing one or more would prove a big endorsement for the company.
Lin founded Amplicore in 2018 based on tech he developed in laboratories at the University of Cincinnati. He’s still affiliated with UC, and the company moved to Mason’s Tech Elevator in early 2020.
“We certainly want to create more job opportunities here, and I see a lot of advantages in Cincinnati. But we don’t know how long we can push back the pressure of rerouting our company, when our primary investors are all coastal and foreign,” Lin said. “We need to show that Ohio is supportive of the biopharma industry as well.”
Amplicore said new funds would facilitate growth and transition its two lead products, AM3101 and AM2101, from pre-clinical to clinical stage. AM3101 and AM2101 are treatments for meniscus tears and osteoarthritis, or OA, respectfully.
The company is also looking to initiate preclinical work for a follow-on program for degenerative disc disease using AM2101. That would be an expansion from its meniscus tear and OA treatments.
“Therapeutically, it makes sense because of the shared biology of the two areas,” Tyler Vandivort, Amplicore’s senior manager of regulatory affairs, said.
Amplicore received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to launch a 200-patient clinical trial for AM3101; meniscus tears are a common knee injury for military members. The Series A funds will support an even larger trial with an international footprint, Lin said. Three to five sites are planned. Patient recruitment is expected to start in the second quarter.
The DOD endorsement gives the company “a lot of regulatory leverage” for its follow-on products, Lin said.
Amplicore said the drugs it's developing, called novel injectable therapeutics, are different because they are minimally invasive and have the potential to facilitate healing or to slow degenerative progression. Current therapies for conditions like osteoarthritis, cartilage damage, disc disease and acute meniscus tear are largely palliative, or offer only short-term relief.
The company currently has eight employees. Lin said he’d like to double that count, including growing the senior leadership team as well as research and development, quality and product development staff.
Besides its fundraising efforts, Amplicore recently participated in the 2022 Biotech Showcase, a life sciences-focused investor conference, and a satellite of the larger JPMorgan annual Healthcare Conference. The showcase, while typically held in the Bay Area, was held virtually Jan. 10–12 and Jan. 17–19.
Lin said it provided exposure to several different investor models and networks the company wouldn’t have otherwise reached.
The Biotech Showcase, and its family of events, attract investors representing more than $400 billion in capital, per Demy-Colton and EBD Group, producers of the event. Amplicore’s presentation focused on the burgeoning musculoskeletal market and highlighted Amplicore’s tech and preclinical safety and efficacy data.
“It’s a big time of transition for our company,” Lin said.
