Hookipa Biotech, an Austria-based biotechnology company which is developing new vaccines, has raised €20m ($27.5m) in a series B equity financing led by existing investors, venture capital firmd Sofinnova Partners and Forbion Capital Partners, and joined by three new investors, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, the corporate venturing affiliate of Germany-based pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, Takeda Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, and Switzerland-based investment firm BioMedPartners.
This financing brings the total equity finance raised by Hookipa to €27m ($36.1m). It announced a series A investment of €7m ($9.4m) in October 2011.
Hookipa is developing prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines based on its Vaxwave technology, which uses a replication- defective viral vector for the prevention and treatment of multiple infectious diseases and cancer.
Dr. Katherine Cohen, chief executive officer of Hookipa, said: “We have made very substantial progress in the last two years and are delighted to have the support of a highly experienced syndicate of venture investors. I would like to thank our initial investors for their strong confidence in Hookipa and I look forward to working with our new investors as we enter into the exciting next stage of development.”
Graziano Seghezzi, partner at Sofinnova Partners, said: “Since Sofinnova’s seed investment in early 2011, Hookipa has developed from a scientific concept into an innovative early-stage vaccine company. Dr. Cohen’s decisive leadership has been instrumental in rapidly assembling a team of experienced vaccine specialists that have made great progress with the Vaxwave technology. The strength and diversification of the investors in this Series B syndicate is testament to the potential of the technology and the abilities of the team.”
Dr. Frank Kalkbrenner from the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund has joined Hookipa’s supervisory board and Dr. Yuji Iizawa from Takeda Ventures and Dr. Markus Hosang from BioMedPartners have joined as observers.
Dr. Kalkbrenner said: “We believe the Vaxwave technology is a ground-breaking platform with potential not only as a prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine in infectious diseases but also as a potential therapeutic approach in the field of oncology.”