Gaithersburg-based Viela Bio closed on a $75M Series B funding round

Gaithersburg, Md.-based Viela Bio announced that it has closed on a $75 million Series B funding round.

The financing round was led by HBM Healthcare Investments, with additional new investments from Viking Global Investors, Cormorant Asset Management, Terra Magnum Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs and Barer & Son Capital and existing investor Temasek.

Launched in February 2018, the biotech startup develops treatments for severe inflammation and autoimmune diseases. This funding round increased Viela Bio’s total capital raise to $300 million since its inception, the company said in a news release.

Maryland-based @VielaBio tops $300M total investment with the close of $75M Series B. This latest funding round will support regulatory filing and pre-commercial planning for their lead product, inebilizumab https://t.co/s31ZZRNITg

— BioBuzz (@BioBuzzMaryland) June 18, 2019

The clinical-stage company said it will use this Series B round of funding to file a biologics license application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its flagship product, inebilizumab. The company reported that it intends to use its product for the treatment of a severe and neurological disease that currently has no FDA-approved treatment plan.

“While our priority is to serve this patient population through the successful approval and launch of inebilizumab, we believe this financing also puts us in a strong position to pursue additional new indications with inebilizumab,” Dr. Bing Yao, executive chairman and CEO of Viela Bio, said in a statement. “Furthermore, we believe this financing will allow us to advance the entirety of our clinical pipeline, which is comprised of several additional clinical candidates for a range of rare autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”

The company said a portion of the funds will also go toward pre-commercial planning ahead of its product launch.