Mablink Bioscience
Mablink Bioscience, from Lyon, invented a water-friendly linker that lets antibodies carry many more cancer-killing drug molecules while staying stable in the blood. Eli Lilly bought the company in 2023, before any of its medicines had reached patients.
Overview
Mablink Bioscience was a preclinical Lyon-based biotech whose PSARlink platform uses a hydrophilic polysarcosine linker arm to mask hydrophobic cytotoxic payloads, enabling homogeneous, plasma-stable antibody-drug conjugates with high drug-to-antibody ratios while preserving pharmacokinetics and tolerability; PSARlink ADCs showed an improved therapeutic index in animal models. The company was funded by a 2021 seed round led by Elaia Partners with UI Investissement and Relyens Innovation Santé, and a July 2022 Series A led by Sofinnova Partners and Mérieux Equity Partners. On 18 October 2023 Mablink announced an agreement to be acquired by Eli Lilly, subject to French Ministry of the Economy approval; terms were not disclosed. The company domain now redirects to lilly.com.
Funding
All startups| Round | Year | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acquisition · Agreement announced 18 October 2023; terms not disclosed | 2023 | undisclosed | biospace.com |
| Series A · July 2022, led by Sofinnova Partners and Mérieux Equity Partners; amount not stated in the fetched release copy | 2022 | undisclosed | biospace.com |
| Seed · Led by Elaia Partners; amount not stated in the fetched release copy | 2021 | undisclosed | biospace.com |
Amounts only where the cited source states them. Rounds without a public source are not listed.
Notes
top- mablink.com redirects to lilly.com, recorded as the website. Series A amount (reported elsewhere as EUR 31 million) not stated in the fetched source and omitted. GlobeNewswire original could not be fetched.