On October 24, 2024 Epitopea, a transatlantic cancer immunotherapeutics company developing accessible off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies, reported the closing of a USD $31 million pre-Series A financing (Press release, Epitopea, OCT 24, 2024, View Source [SID1234647364]).
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The pre-Series A financing brings the total capital raised by Epitopea to over USD $45 million. New investors Investissement Québec, adMare BioInnovations and Jonathan Milner join existing investors Advent Life Sciences, CTI Life Sciences, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, the Harrington Discovery Institute, IRICoR and Novateur Ventures, all of whom also participated in this financing round.
Dr. Alan C. Rigby, Epitopea’s CEO, said,
"We believe that more durable cancer therapies are needed to transform the lives of cancer patients diagnosed with hard-to-treat solid tumors where overall survival is still poor for most patients. We continue to make significant strides toward the clinic, which has strengthened investor enthusiasm, and resulted in an over-subscribed pre-Series A in support of our forward-looking mission and vision. This additional financing will support strategic pre-clinical discovery in solid tumors of interest while accelerating our near-term clinical development plans for Epitopea’s next generation, tumor selective, off-the-shelf, RNA-based immunotherapies that we believe have the potential to extend the durability of clinical response in patients."
"In this round we would like to warmly welcome new investors Investissement Québec, adMare BioInnovations and Jonathan Milner, whose participation complements the continued passionate support of our existing transatlantic investor syndicate. This pre-Series A raise provides the necessary finances to accelerate our development campaigns and transition to a clinical-stage company with a focused commitment of delivering our transformational RNA cancer immunotherapy into the clinic in 2026".
Satish Jindal, Ph.D., General Partner with Advent Life Sciences added,
"As a founding investor of Epitopea, we are pleased to continue our robust support of the company as it makes major strides in exploiting its proprietary CryptoMapTM platform to identify novel targets that can serve as the basis for the development of a range of ground-breaking cancer immunotherapies. Through our investment in this exciting and growing company, we look forward to Epitopea advancing a first off-the-shelf RNA cancer immunotherapy into the clinic, which could bring significant improvements to cancer patients’ quality and duration of life."
"adMare is thrilled to invest in Epitopea and support the development of their highly differentiated RNA therapeutic platform. Epitopea’s innovative approach to cancer treatment aligns with our mission to drive scientific progress and bring transformative therapies to patients. We look forward supporting the growth of this promising company,"
said Frédéric Lemaître Auger, Vice President Investments at adMare BioInnovations.
"Alongside other key players in the financial ecosystem, Investissement Québec is proud to participate in this round of funding designed to accelerate preclinical stages and research into cancer immunotherapies. Our support will not only promote the development of homegrown expertise in Québec, but also help drive the growth of a promising young Montréal business at the heart of the strategic life-sciences sector".
said Bicha Ngo, President and CEO, Investissement Québec.