Date: 2012-06-19
Type of information: Fundraising
Company: Xenikos (The Netherlands)
Investors: Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation (The Netherlands)
Participatiemaatschappij Oost Nederland N.V (The Netherlands)
Innovation & Investment Fund Gelderland (The Netherlands)
Agentschap NL (The Netherlands)
Amount: € 5.5 million
Funding type: series A financing round
Planned used: The financing will be used to support the manufacturing of clinical grade T-Guard™ at Sanquin, and the subsequent clinical testing of T-Guard™ in a Dutch multicenter Phase Ib/IIa study in patients with severe acute GVHD not responding on steroid-therapy. The financing will also support the exploratory evaluation of T-Guard™ in xenograft (human-mouse) models of selected autoimmune diseases in which T-cells are involved.
Others: * On June 19, 2012, Xenikos has completed a € 3.6 million Series A financing round with strategic partner Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation, Participatiemaatschappij Oost Nederland N.V., and Innovation & Investment Fund Gelderland B.V. In addition, Xenikos has secured a € 1.9 million Innovation Credit granted by Agentschap NL, an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economy, Agriculture and Innovation.
Xenikos is developing a combination of two toxin-loaded anti-T-cell antibodies, T-Guard™, as a therapeutic tool for resetting the body’s immune system in T-cell mediated diseases. Once injected in the body, T-Guard™ specifically identifies and eliminates adult T cells, with a strong preference for the activated ones. Following a one-week therapy, TGuard ™ is then swiftly washed out of the body, and the T cell compartment will be rapidly restored with newly formed, normal behaving, T cells. T-Guard™ is effective in killing activated T cells, but also acts through mechanisms that are associated with minimal side effects (via apoptosis). As a first application, T-Guard™ is being developed for treating steroid-resistant acute Graftversus-Host Disease (GVHD). T-Guard™ was initially developed at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (RUNMC), where it was tested in a clinical pilot-study in critically ill GVHD patients. T-Guard™ demonstrated promising results, showing extensive biological and clinical responses in the absence of any severe acute side effects.
Therapeutic area: Transplantation - Immunological diseases
