France-based immuno-oncology therapy developer ImCheck Therapeutics has closed a €20m ($21.8m) series A round co-led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim.
Venture capital firm Kurma Partners and private equity firm Idinvest Partners co-led the round, while investment firms Gimv and LSP also contributed.
Founded in 2015, ImCheck is working on therapeutic antibodies that will treat cancer and auto-immune diseases. The company’s technology is based on research by Daniel Olive, pofessor of immunology at Aix-Marseille University and cancer research centre Institut Paoli-Calmettes.
ImCheck is a spinout of Institut Paoli-Calmettes with technology licensed through Inserm Transfert, the commercialisation arm of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, and regional tech transfer organisation Satt Sud-Est.
The money will support the development of several drug candidates that ImCheck aims to bring into clinical trials by 2019. ImCheck named Pierre d’Epenoux as its chief executive at the same time as it disclosed details of the series A round.
D’Epenoux said: “I am delighted to join ImCheck at this exciting development stage of the company and together with its outstanding team, quickly put on the map a novel class of drugs with the potential to overcome resistance to currently available treatments for cancer and auto-immune diseases.”