Date: 2011-05-03
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: Delenex Therapeutics (Switzerland)
Investors: Novo Ventures (Denmark) - SV Life Sciences (UK - USA) - HBM BioCapital (Cayman Islands) - HBM BioVentures (Cayman Islands) - BioMedInvest (Switzerland) - VI Partners (Switzerland)
Amount: CHF 30.2 million (€23.5 million)
Funding type: Series A venture equity investment round
Planned used: Delenex discovers novel antibodies using its proprietary PENTRA® platform and is soon to start clinical trials in inflammatory diseases, including dermatology, with its DLX105 compound, an anti-TNFa single-chain Fv antibody. The extended funding will enable Delenex to bring DLX105 to proof of concept in this therapy area. In addition, to evaluate the potential of Delenex\' PENTRA® antibodies against other targets, further pre-clinical programs will advance to clinical candidate status, including use in other body compartments such as the central nervous system.
Others: Delenex Therapeutics has extended its Series A venture equity investment round securing an additional CHF 16.7 million ($19.3 mio, € 13.0 million) providing a total A Round investment of CHF 30.2 million ($34.8 million, € 23.5 million). The extended A round was led by new investor Novo Ventures, with the existing A round major investors (SV Life Sciences, HBM BioCapital, HBM BioVentures, BioMedInvest and VI Partners) all contributing.
Delenex was created in September 2009 as a spin-off from ESBATech (now part of Alcon, the eye care division of Novartis), and is the exclusive licensee for any non-ophthalmic uses of ESBATech\'s products and IPR pre-dating the license agreement. Delenex\' lead compound is DLX105, an anti-TNFa optimized single-chain Fv monoclonal antibody that the company intends to develop for topical treatment in dermatologic indications. Delenex also has several compounds at pre-clinical stages, among which anti-VEGF, anti-ALK and anti-Aß antibodies. It is also using its PENTRA® platform to discover new compounds against a selection of dermatology, CNS and inflammation targets. Delenex\' strategy is to discover highly potent, selective, soluble and stable compounds for administration to specific body compartments.
Therapeutic area: CNS diseases - Dermatological diseases - Inflammatory diseases
