Press Release.
Epitopea Closes USD $31 million Pre-Series A Financing
Proceeds support strategic development and clinical entry of lead Cryptigen immunotherapeutics
CAMBRIDGE, UK and MONTREAL, CANADA, 24 October 2024 – Epitopea, a transatlantic cancer immunotherapeutics company developing accessible off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies, announces the closing of a USD $31 million pre-Series A financing.
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,” he added.
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.
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Notes To Editors
Contact information
Epitopea
Dr. Alan C. Rigby – CEO
Scius Communications
Katja Stout
+44 7789 435990
Daniel Gooch
+44 7747 875479
Daniel@sciuscommunications.com
About Epitopea
Epitopea is a transatlantic cancer immunotherapeutics company developing accessible off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies for use in hard-to-treat cancers by targeting a new class of untapped tumor-specific antigens, which are known as CryptigenTM TSAs, that are broadly shared across multiple patients with the same tumor type.
The company has created an extensive library of novel CryptigenTM TSAs, discovered by its proprietary CryptoMapTM platform that leverages immunopeptidomics, genomics, and a bioinformatics pipeline, allowing the identification of aberrantly-expressed, tumour-specific antigens (aeTSA’s) that are hidden within cancer’s ’junk’ DNA. These hidden CryptigenTM TSAs were first discovered through research led by Drs. Claude Perreault and Pierre Thibault at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the Université de Montréal.
Epitopea is backed by leading life science investors including Advent Life Sciences, CTI Life Sciences, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Le Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, adMare BioInnovations, Jonathan Milner, the Harrington Discovery Institute, IRICoR and Novateur Ventures. To date the company has raised financing of more than USD $45 million. Epitopea was founded in 2021 and consists of sister companies based in Cambridge, UK and in Montreal, Canada. For additional information, please visit www.epitopea.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
About Investissement Québec
Investissement Québec’s mission is to play an active role in Quebec’s economic development by stimulating business innovation, entrepreneurship, and business acquisitions, as well as growth in investment and exports. Operating in all the province’s administrative regions, the Corporation supports the creation and growth of businesses of all sizes with investments and customized financial solutions. It also assists businesses by providing consulting services and other support measures, including technological assistance available from Investissement Québec Innovation. In addition, through Investissement Québec International, the Corporation prospects for talent and foreign investment, and assists Quebec businesses with export activities.
About adMare BioInnovations
With a strong track record of globally competitive scientific discovery, Canadian life sciences are primed to lead the world. To make this a reality, adMare BioInnovations uses its scientific and commercial expertise, specialized R&D infrastructure, and seed capital to build strong life sciences companies, develop robust ecosystems, and foster industry-ready talent. It re-invests its returns into the Canadian industry to ensure its long-term sustainability. adMare has helped build 36 companies, of which 25 are still active. These companies have attracted $2.4 billion of risk capital, have a combined value of $5.7 billion, and have created around 1,000 jobs in Canada. Our dynamic Montreal and Vancouver Innovation Centers have been home to 48 life science companies to date, with the 27 current resident companies employing over 350 life sciences professionals. The adMare Academy has trained more than 750 alumni — 92% of whom are employed in the life sciences industry. For more information, please visit www.admarebio.com.
