Date: 2014-05-05
Type of information: Series A financing round
Company: Anokion (Switzerland)
Investors: Novartis Venture Fund (Switzerland) Novo Ventures (Denmark) Versant Ventures (USA)
Amount: CHF 33 million (€27.1 million)
Funding type: series A financing round
Planned used: Anokion, a spin-off from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL,) has developed a technology for retraining white blood cells to induce therapeutic immune tolerance. Anokion will use the funds to develop clinical candidates in the areas of immune-masked protein therapeutics, autoimmune and allergic diseases. First clinical trials are planned for 2017.
Anokion is applying its antigen-specific immune tolerance technology to reduce the immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins and to treat autoimmune and allergic diseases. The technology harnesses the power of natural immune regulation by engineering proteins to be perceived as ‘self’ entities. The company has already demonstrated the efficacy of its technology by creating a tolerogenic form of asparaginase, a protein drug from E. coli used to treat a form of leukemia. When modified with Anokion’s technology, this foreign protein was not attacked by the immune system in mouse models. The company has also demonstrated the complete prevention of pathology in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes.
Others: * On May 5, 2014, Anokion announced that it has successfully closed a Series A financing round for CHF 33 million ($37.5 million). A group of leading life sciences venture capitalists, consisting of Novartis Venture Fund, Novo Ventures and Versant Ventures, co-led the financing with additional participation by private investors. Following the closure of the financing round, Florent Gros (Managing Director of Novartis Venture Fund), Jack Nielsen (Partner at Novo Ventures), and Tom Woiwode (Managing Director at Versant Ventures) joined the Board of Directors. In addition, André J. Mueller and Harry Welten joined the Board as Independent Directors. Jens Kurth, who most recently directed Novartis’ key biologics projects, joins the management team as Chief Technology Officer. Jens has an extensive track record in the pharmaceutical industry in driving the development, regulatory approval, and commercialization of new drugs.
Therapeutic area: Allergic diseases - Autoimmune diseases - Immunological diseases
