Roland Buelow, Teneobio, and building a novel therapeutic platform for cancer and infectious diseases.

by Jonathan MacQuitty, Sector Head for Life Sciences at Lightspeed

Roland Buelow and I first met over 20 years ago when he reached out to discuss his first entrepreneurial venture focused on human polyclonal antibodies for cancer and for serious infectious diseases.

We had good discussions, but in the end, he chose to go with another investor which ostensibly offered better terms. Unfortunately, the stated alignment with that investor never materialized and Roland ended up selling the company much earlier than he wanted to.

Fast forward to 2016 and Roland came to me with another antibody platform biotech company called Teneobio. The technology was compelling, and Roland had meanwhile become experienced in partnering with pharmaceutical companies which suggested the possibility of non-dilutive capital along the way. So Lightspeed stepped up with an offer to lead the first $34M institutional financing. There were other VC firms circling but Roland agreed to have Lightspeed lead the round and added two Lightspeed seats to Teneobio’s Board.

That financing turned out to be the only equity Teneobio needed as they signed several partnerships including an option deal with Abbvie around their lead cancer antibody. This year Abbvie exercised that option, and most recently Amgen acquired all but three of Teneobio’s projects. These are now managed by Ancora Biotech, a newly formed company headed by Roland Buelow.

Teneobio is an excellent showcase of how Lightspeed partners with founders and entrepreneurs to help them realize their visions for developing or delivering novel healthcare solutions to patients. Over the last 18 months Lightspeed has backed entrepreneurs in developing novel transplantation, cell and digital therapies as well as in genomics, virtual care and novel payment systems.

Meanwhile the products that came from Teneobio’s platform are now being tested in several clinical trials in human patients to treat resistant cancers such as multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and prostate cancer. Other Teneobio products are focused on autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases such Hepatitis B.

Lightspeed looks forward to backing more visionary entrepreneurs like Roland Buelow who want to impact healthcare with innovative products and life changing therapies.

See today’s press release to read more.