Tag: BioMedInvest

Company News: Anergis Closes Series B Financing Round Totaling CHF 14.5 Million

– Two U.S.-based family offices join as new investors

All Series A investors participate in the round

Anergis, a company developing proprietary ultra-fast allergy vaccines, today announced the closing of a Series B financing round totaling CHF 14.5 million (€ 12.1 million, US$ 15 million). All Series A investors participated in the round together with new private European and U.S.-based investors. The financing was jointly led by existing investors Sunstone Capital, BioMedInvest and Renaissance PME as well as new investor WJFS, Inc. Anergis has so far raised a total of CHF 44 million in private equity, which includes the latest Series B financing round.

The funds will be used to advance Anergis´ birch allergy vaccine AllerT closer to market. The company is currently preparing the Phase III clinical trial program of AllerT. Anergis has already demonstrated the rapid and long-lasting clinical efficacy of AllerT in two subsequent field-based clinical Phase II trials. The funds will also be used to advance the AllerR ragweed allergy program towards clinical testing, as well as to research and discover undisclosed new Contiguous Overlapping Peptide (COP) allergy vaccines.

Company News: Anergis Closes Financing Round Totaling CHF 8 M

– Preparation of Phase III trials with lead allergy vaccine AllerT

– Field-based, long-term efficacy milestone in patients from the AllerT Phase IIb trial coming up

Anergis, a company discovering and developing proprietary allergy vaccines, today announced the closing of a financing round totaling CHF 8 million. The financing was fully subscribed by existing investors and directors and was co-lead by Sunstone Capital, BioMedInvest and Renaissance PME/Vinci Capital.

Anergis will use the proceeds to further advance the clinical development of its lead product AllerT, a vaccine to treat birch pollen allergy, and to advance two additional vaccine candidates against house dust mite and ragweed allergies. For AllerT, the funds will specifically allow the preparation of Phase III trials and the conduct of a long-term efficacy follow-up trial of patients who participated in the recently completed field-based Phase II study. The results from this second follow-up season are expected to be available in the third quarter of 2014.

Company News: Curetis Raises EUR 12.5 Million in Series B Round Led by New Investor HBM Partners

– Co-investment of all current institutional investors as well as several private investors and management

– Company now has access to over EUR 20 million in cash for the next phase of commercial and operational growth

Curetis AG today announced the closing of a Series B financing round totaling EUR 12.5 million. The financing was led by HBM Partners, which has taken a EUR 6.0 million equity stake in Curetis. Dr. Alexander Asam of HBM will join Curetis’ supervisory board.

In addition, the company’s existing institutional investors aeris Capital, LSP Life Sciences Partners, Forbion Capital, BioMedInvest, Roche Venture Fund, CD Venture and KfW have contributed a total of EUR 5.6 million to the round on a pro rata basis. Curetis’ management as well as several of the company’s founders, private investors and board members also co-invested.

Including the latest Series B financing, Curetis has raised a total of EUR 49.1 million in equity capital to date.

Curetis will use the proceeds for the next phase of commercial and operational growth, including a prospective, multi-center FDA registrational trial with 2,000 patients and the further expansion of the company’s commercial activities and team in Europe.

Curetis anticipates a phase of rapid market adoption in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) where more than 50 top tier hospitals have agreed to install Unyvero™ for local testing. The inclusion of Unyvero™ in an upcoming global Phase IIb trial by Sanofi Pasteur is expected to add further momentum to the market penetration of Unyvero™.

Moreover, the company expects to continue the rapid international expansion of its commercial distribution network across Europe and the Middle East, but also towards Asia, Latin America and, following FDA clearance, to the USA.

Further upcoming milestones include the market launch of a second Unyvero™ cartridge application (ITI) together with Heraeus Medical and clinical data from a global Phase III trial in community-acquired bacterial pneumonia conducted by Cempra Pharmaceuticals.

Company News: Long-Term Immunomodulation Induced by Anergis´ COP Allergy Vaccine AllerT Now Extends to the 4th Year After Treatment

Patients with birch pollen allergy who received an ultra-fast allergy vaccine four years ago maintain an elevated level of antibodies against the allergen, reports Swiss biopharmaceutical company Anergis.

The company, which is developing breakthrough allergy vaccines for fast and safe allergen-specific immunotherapy, today announced new data on the immune-regulatory effect of its AllerT vaccine.

In 2008/2009, twenty patients suffering from moderate to severe allergies to birch pollen were enrolled in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase I/IIa trial and received 5 subcutaneous injections over 2 months of either AllerT (N=15) or placebo (N=5). Four years later, all subjects were invited to return to the trial center. In subjects who had received AllerT, blood levels of so-called IgG4 antibodies against specific birch pollen allergens were similar to those reported after 2 years (in 2010) and still 4.5 times higher than the pre-treatment baseline level (p< 0.001). Placebo-treated patients showed no median change from baseline in allergen-specific IgG4 at any time during the trial treatment period, nor after the 2010 and 2012 birch pollen seasons.

Earlier this week, Anergis also announced the start of a large, 300-patient real-life seasonal efficacy phase IIb trial with AllerT in patients allergic to birch pollen. This trial is being conducted in multiple European countries [NCT01720251].

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