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Fundraisings and IPOs

Date: 2011-01-12

Type of information: Financing round

Company: Vaximm (Germany)

Investors: BB Biotech Ventures (Switzerland) Merck KGaA (Germany) Sunstone Capital (Denmark) Merck Serono Ventures (Switzerland) BioMedPartners (Switzerland)

Amount: CHF 7.8 million

Funding type: financing round

Planned used:

  • Vaximm is a privately held, Swiss- and German-based biotech company. The company was formed in 2008 as a joint venture of BB Biotech Ventures and Merck KGaA. It is primarily focused on developing active cancer immunotherapies. Its initial product candidate VXM01 is targeting the tumor vasculature, which is essential for tumors to grow beyond microscopic size. VXM01 has shown  anti-tumor activity in various animal studies and human clinical trials are expected to start in 2011. Proceeds of the financing will be used to progress VXM01 into and through clinical phase I testing. This investigational oral T-cell vaccine is designed to elicit an immune response against vascular endothelium growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2), a well characterized target for anti- angiogenic intervention. The original work on VXM01 was conducted at The Scripps Research Institute and the project was in- licensed by Vaximm from Merck KGaA in 2008.
   

Others:

  • • On January 12, 2011, Vaxxim, a Merck KGaA spin-off focused on developing active cancer immunotherapies, announced the closing of a private financing round totaling CHF 7.8 million from new and existing investors. BB Biotech Ventures and Merck KGaA were joined by new investors Sunstone Capital, Merck Serono Ventures and BioMedPartners.
  • Dr. Sten Verland, Partner at Sunstone Capital and Dr. Gerhard Ries, Co-founder and General Partner of BioMedPartners, are joining Vaximm’s board of directors.
 

Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology

Is general: Yes