Germany-based cancer immunotherapy developer Abalos Therapeutics launched yesterday with €12m ($13.3m) in funding from a series A round co-led by pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim.
Venture capital fund Gründerfonds Ruhr co-led the round, which included public-private partnership High-Tech Gründerfonds and NRW.Bank, the state development bank of North Rhine-Westphalia. Boehringer Ingelheim invested through its Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund.
Abalos is leveraging its Fast Evolution platform to develop cancer immunotherapies that employ a specific arenavirus strain thought to provoke anti-tumour immune responses by selectively infecting and thriving within cancerous cells.
The company extends collaborative research undertaken by Karl Lang, chair of immunology at University of Duisburg-Essen’s Medical Faculty, and Philipp Lang, director of the Department of Molecular Medicine II at University of Düsseldorf.
The capital will support Abalos as it commences operations and prepares its lead assets for clinical-stage development.
Marcus Kostka, partner at Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, will lead the spinout as chief executive while representatives from all four series A investors will join its newly-created supervisory board.
Kostka said: “Abalos’ goal is to capture the potent immune activation and highly specific tumour tropism of the arenavirus to propel a differentiated immuno-oncology approach towards clinical evaluation.
“After funding and supporting a range of biotechnology companies over the years, this promising technology and the chance to build a company with [chief scientific officer Jörg Vollmer] as a highly-experienced immunology expert made this opportunity extremely attractive.”
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.