Date: 2014-11-25
Type of information: Series C financing round
Company: Promethera Biosciences (Belgium)
Investors: SFPI-FPIM (Belgium) SMS Investments (Luxemburg - Germany) Vesalius Biocapital Partners (Luxemburg) SRIW (Belgium) Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (Germany) Shire (UK - USA) Mitsui Global Investment (Japan) ATMI (USA) SambrInvest (Belgium) Walloon Region (Belgium) Pall-ATMI LifeSciences (USA - MN) Vives-Louvain Technology Transfer Office Fund (Belgium) business angels.
Amount: €25.33 million ($31.4 million)
Funding type: series C financing round
Planned used: The new round supports the clinical development of HepaStem®, a cell-based therapy for the treatment of in-born errors of metabolism and acquired liver diseases. Last month, Belgium has authorized the conduct of a trial designed to treat paediatric patients with urea cycle disorders (UCD) in a Phase IIb/III study (HEP002). This first agreement officially opens the start of the second clinical trial conducted by the company. In the first clinical trial HEP001, HepaStem demonstrated to be a safe treatment that can result in functional metabolic improvement in UCD patients.
Others: * On November 25, 2014, Promethera Biosciences, a Belgian biotechnology company developing Promethera® HepaStem, a cell-based therapy for the treatment of in-born errors of metabolism and acquired liver diseases, announced the completion of its Series C fundraising round. The company has raised €25.33 million ($31.4 million), including €20.33 million in capital. The success of the Series-C fundraising is the result of the completion of the HepaStem phase I/II study, following a Series B fundraising in March 2012 when €17 million in equity was raised. Promethera Biosciences has attracted two new investors in this new round, securing a third capital increase of €20.33 million. SFPI-FPIM, the Belgian Federal Holding and Investment Company, and SMS Investments, a Luxemburg based subsidiary office of the German SMS group, have now acquired equity in Promethera Biosciences. They join the company’s historical international investors: Vesalius Biocapital and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (the venture capital fund of the German pharmaceutical group) the lead investors; SRIW; Shire, a leading UK biopharmaceutical company; Mitsui Global Investment, the venture capital fund of Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui & Co Ltd. and Pall-ATMI LifeSciences; Vives-Louvain Technology Transfer Office Fund; as well as several business angels. In addition, the Walloon region, which has backed the company since its inception, has granted loans and subsidies of €5 million to support the clinical development of HepaStem and the collaborative program with EMD-Millipore.
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Genetic diseases - Metabolic diseases - Liver diseases
