Date: 2015-06-26
Type of information: Financing round
Company: Vaxxilon (Switzerland)
Investors: Actelion (Switzerland)
Amount: up to €30 million
Funding type: financing round
Planned used: Vaxxilon is dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative synthetic carbohydrate vaccines to prevent, first and foremost, bacterial infections. Vaxxilon has licensed multiple preclinical vaccine candidates to target pathogens for which there are no approved vaccines, or for which existing vaccines do not fully meet medical needs. Vaxxilon was created in 2015 by Actelion Ltd and the Max Planck Society. The first preclinical candidates were discovered and synthesized by Prof. Dr. Peter Seeberger and his team at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, near Berlin. An additional key component of the technology was jointly developed by Prof. Seeberger and Prof. Gennaro de Libero of the University Hospital of Basel. Vaxxilon plans to advance its first vaccine candidate into man within 3 years. Vaxxilon will be led by Tom Monroe who has served in multiple and varied roles of growing responsibility at Actelion over the past 15 years. Four accomplished chemists from Prof. Seeberger\'s group will form the initial scientific team at Vaxxilon, and recruitment will begin quickly for additional experienced personnel. Vaxxilon, a Swiss limited liability company, will be headquartered in Reinach, Switzerland, and a research facility will be established in Berlin. The company will be overseen by a Board of Directors with representatives of Actelion, Prof. Seeberger, and an independent director as well as an observer from the Max Planck Society. David Stout, recently elected to the Actelion Board of Directors, and former President of Pharmaceutical Operations at GlaxoSmithKline, will serve as chairman.
Others: * On June 26, 2015, Actelion announced the creation of a start-up, together with the Max Planck Society, in the field of synthetic carbohydrate vaccines. Actelion is the principal investor and majority shareholder, having made a funding commitment of up to €30 million, to be released in tranches over a period of three to four years.
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
