Date: 2017-02-20
Type of information: Financing round
Company: Centauri Therapeutics (UK)
Investors: Animatrix Capital (UK) private investors
Amount: £4.2 million (€ million)
Funding type: financing round
Planned used: Centauri Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the treatment of infectious diseases, will use the funds to develop its first lead Alphamers against anti-microbial resistant (AMR) pathogens, which pose an increasing threat to human health. The company has recently acquired the Alphamer technology for drug discovery and development from Altermune Technologies. The technology is based on "programmable immunity" in which chemically synthesised molecules redirect naturally occurring antibodies to selected targets. The molecules have two distinct parts: one end binds a cell-surface marker on the target (bacterial or tumour cell) using an aptamer, whereas the other end presents specific epitopes that attach to the circulating antibodies. It has been demonstrated that Alphamers have the potential to redirect pre-existing antibodies to the target in a specific manner and trigger an immediate immune response, so removing the target. The funds raised will be used to take the Company’s first Alphamer drug candidate for anti-infective therapies through to preclinical proof of concept, a significant value inflection point in the program development, whilst progressing two other anti-bacterial candidates in parallel. Separately, Centauri is also actively progressing immune-oncology targets through Avvinity Therapeutics, its joint venture with Horizon Discovery , in which Horizon will invest up to £5.3 million over two tranches with the first tranche of £2.5m already committed. Centauri’s focus on anti-microbial resistance and immuno-oncology medicines are priority markets for the worldwide healthcare agenda, which are forecast to reach a combined total of £100bn by 2020.
Others: * On February 20, 2017, Centauri Therapeutics announced that it has secured an additional £1.2m in funding to complete the seed round, the first tranche of which was raised in January 2016. The participants in the second tranche included existing investors and several new private investors. Centauri is based at Discovery Park, Kent and is backed by private investors and a strategic investment from a regional investment fund (Discovery Park Investment Fund).
* On January 2016, Centauri Therapeutics announced that the company has secured the first tranche of a £3M raise to develop its first lead candidate. Investors include Animatrix Capital LLP, a regional investment fund, and private investors.
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
