Date: 2011-12-19
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: Cellprothera (France)
Investors: R2M (France)- SODIV Alsace (France)
Amount: € 2.5 million
Funding type: financing round
Planned used: These funds will be used to finance the biological validation phase of its treatment for patients suffering from severe myocardial infarction. These study began a few weeks ago. The company will also use these funds to prepare an international clinical, scheduled in late 2012.
Others: CellProthera has completed a € 2.5 million fundraising from the investment company R2M and SODIV Alsace. This investment allows the company to maintain the strategic directions established until 2013. CellProthera expects to commercialize its first medical devices in 24 months. The company has also obtained a first tranche of a €1.8 million granted in 2010 by the Single Interministerial Fund (FUI - Fonds Unique Interministériel). CellProthera is now seeking new financial partners to support the clinical trial planned for late 2012 on 150 patients in Europe, the United States and Canada. This third round is estimated around €10 million euros. CellProthera is specialized in the development of autologous cell therapy for the regeneration of cardiac tissue after myocardial infarction. This treatment consists in the automated production of a graft of adult stem cells collected in the patient’s own blood followed by delivery of this graft directly into the cardiac lesion. Thereafter, a non surgical delivery of these cells into the damaged cardiac area would lead to its progressive regeneration within the following months instead of the inevitable development of irreversible necrosis, to the benefit of the patient’s life expectancy. The beneficial effects of this breakthrough treatment have been observed in a benchmark pilot study carried out in collaboration with the Institut de Recherche en Hématologie et Transplantation (IRHT) in Mulhouse, and reported in Cytotherapy, the official journal of the International Cell Therapy Society (“Long-term benefit of intracardiac delivery of autologous granulocyte–colony-stimulating factor-mobilized blood CD34+ cells containing cardiac progenitors on regional heart structure and function after myocardial infarct” Pasquet S , Sovalat H , Hénon Ph , et al., , Cytotherapy, December 2009, Vol. 11, No. 8, Pages 1002-1015.). Seven patients suffering from a severe MI (three of whom were considered candidates for heart transplant) were treated with a direct intracardiac injection of their own stem cells. A progressive improvement of the left ventricular ejection fraction (an established parameter of the cardiac contractile function) was observed in six of the seven patients from the third month onward, with a mean improvement rate of 64% from pre-treatment values.
Therapeutic area: Cardiovascular diseases
