Tag: Roche Venture Fund

Company News: Curetis Closes EUR 14.5 Million Extension of Series B Financing

–      Curetis wins new investors QIAGEN and LSP-HEF, committing EUR 7 million

–      Curetis well financed into 2017

Curetis AG, a developer of next-level molecular diagnostic solutions, today announced it has closed a EUR 14.5 million extension of its Series B financing round, which was originally led by HBM Partners in April 2013. All existing investors – aeris Capital, BioMed Invest, CD Venture, Forbion Capital, HBM Partners, LSP – Life Sciences Partners, Roche Venture Fund, management, a trustee-pool of Curetis employees and private angel investors – participated in the extension financing, investing EUR 7.5 million on a pro rata basis. QIAGEN and LSP Health Economics Fund (LSP-HEF) are joining as new investors, committing a total of EUR 7 million. The financing brings the total amount of equity raised by Curetis AG to over EUR 63.5 million.

In addition, Rudy Dekeyser of LSP-HEF will join Curetis´ Supervisory Board, while Hans-Guenter Hohmann will step down after being a Board member for the past six years. Dr. Martin Potgeter, Vice President Business Development of QIAGEN, will take an observer seat on the board as second representative of a corporate investor alongside Simon Meier of Roche Venture Fund and Dr. Karsten Fischer of BioMed Invest.

The financing is supported by the achievement of key milestones, e.g. several CE/IVD-marked products, an ongoing FDA clearance trial and a growing commercial distribution network across Europe. The European market introduction of both the Unyvero P50 Pneumonia and i60 Implant and Tissue Infection applications, allowing a faster and better diagnosis of life-threatening infectious diseases, has shown increasing traction. In addition, the company is in talks with several parties on granting future U.S. commercialization rights and further expanding the commercialization into Asia and other global markets.

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: Curetis AG Attracts Forbion and Roche As New Investors

– Series A financing round expanded to €34.1 million –

Curetis AG, an innovative molecular diagnostics company focusing on the development and commercialization of in-vitro diagnostic products for infectious diseases, today announced the expansion of its Series A financing round by € 9.6 million. The additional funds increase the round to a total of € 34.1 million and the total capital raised to date to € 36.6 million. The financing was led by Forbion Capital Partners together with Roche Venture Fund. CD-Venture and Curetis ́ management also participated in the round. Holger Reithinger, Partner at Forbion Capital Partners, has joined Curetis’ Board of Directors. Roche will get an observer seat on the Board of Directors.

Since its inception in 2007, Curetis AG has developed the versatile Unyvero™ instrument platform which handles disease-specific disposable cartridges for the analysis of various marker panels, covering both pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes. The Unyvero™ platform combines a unique, fully automated sample preparation working with a comprehensive range of native clinical sample types, with isolation, amplification and highly multiplexed detection of DNA. The simplified, automated and uniform work flow enables testing at the point of need, eliminates operator-induced variations and ensures high-quality results in a short time frame. The first application, a solution for comprehensive pneumonia testing, has successfully completed extensive pre-clinical testing, is about to enter into pivotal clinical trials towards regulatory clearance and is scheduled to enter the European market as a CE-marked device in 2012.