On February 18, 2016 BioGenerator, an evergreen investor that creates, grows and invests in promising companies and entrepreneurs, reported that it has made an investment from its Concept Fund into Unleash Immuno Oncolytics, a company focused on treatments of cancer (Press release, Unleash Immuno Oncolytics, FEB 18, 2016, View Source [SID1234540112]). Unleash is an immune-oncology company developing virus immunotherapy products to treat cancer. The company was developed based on collaborations between Dr. David Curiel, Director, Biologic Therapeutics Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Dr. Osvaldo Podhajcer, Director of the Argentinian Consortium of Genomic Technology and is licensing technology from Leloir Institute. As part of the funding, Unleash will set up headquarters in St. Louis and operate from CIC in the @4240 building.
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BioGenerator is the investment arm of BioSTL, a nonprofit civic organization building St. Louis’ innovation ecosystem and which in the last two years has added a focus of recruiting international companies to the region. "Through our GlobalSTL initiative we are leveraging St. Louis’ scientific and business strengths to attract cutting-edge technologies and talent that enrich our region," explained Donn Rubin, president and CEO of BioSTL. "Unleash’s decision to locate in St. Louis is a testament to our world-class strengths in medicine and human health." "Unleash is based on technology from two leaders in the field of oncology and has promising applications," said Charlie Bolten, vice president of BioGenerator. "Immunotherapy is a quickly evolving area of human health and BioGenerator is pleased to be one of the first investors in a company at the cutting edge of research."
Other investors in the round include Axia Ventures, a Latin American investment and support organization. Unleash will use the initial investment to fund IND-enabling tasks including cGMP manufacturing, toxicology and bio-distribution studies for its oncolytic immunotherapy product.
¨We are pleased with BioGenerator’s role as lead investor in this round and establishing Unleash in Saint Louis," said Daniel Katzman, CEO of Unleash. "We are now eager to advance Unleash’s virus immunotherapy products to the clinic."