Nuvig raises $161 million to make better immune drugs

Biotech startup Nuvig Therapeutics is the latest up-and-coming immune drug developer to attract investor attention, announcing a $161 million Series B round on Thursday to advance its leading candidate into mid-stage testing .

The company, based in Menlo Park, California, has raised funds from more than a dozen investors. The company plans to use the money to develop antibody drugs that can treat autoimmune diseases without broadly suppressing the body’s defenses, as existing therapies for immune diseases typically do. Nuvig’s approach could be applied to multiple chronic diseases, said Pamela Conley, the company’s chief scientific officer and founding CEO.

The company’s lead program is entering Phase 2, where it will be tested in a rare disease called chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) and other unspecified autoimmune diseases. The drug, called NVG-2089, is designed to bind to and activate type II Fc receptors, which help regulate immune responses. This is intended to help “restore normal immune homeostasis,” Conley said, rather than “compromise people’s immune systems and become unable to respond to foreign antigens.”

In CIDP, the body mistakenly attacks the myelin sheaths that protect nerve cells, leading to progressive muscle weakness. The disease is currently treated with immunosuppressive drugs, intravenous immunoglobulin and, more recently, Vyvgart, an antibody drug from the biotech company Argenx. Vyvgart and several other proteins in development block a different type of Fc protein called FcRn.

But these approaches “remove good antibodies,” Conley said, leaving patients with weakened immune systems in the long run. “We differ significantly in our potential safety profile and have a unique mechanism of action,” she claimed.

Nuvig launched in 2022 with $47 million in funding. The Series B was led by Sanofi Ventures, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities and Norwest Venture Partners. Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Holdings and Leaps by Bayer also participated, among others.

The funding has contributed to a recent uptick in investment in immune drug makers. According to BioPharma Dive data, startups focused on immune drug discovery raised at least around $3 billion in 2024, more than double last year’s total. Biotech companies with drugs in clinical trials, such as Nuvig, have gained investor support more easily in recent years compared to preclinical companies, the data also shows.