Shield Therapeutics, a Switzerland-based specialty pharmaceutical company treating iron deficiency in the blood, has raised €8.2m ($12m) from Inventages Venture Capital, which acts as the corporate venturing unit for local chocolate maker Nestle, in its series A round.
The round gives a post-money valuation of €35m and will be paid in two equal tranches over the next two years to fund Shield’s next set of trials of its lead product.
In November, Shield sold a minority stake and signed a commercialisation agreement to central and eastern Europe and the Middle-East for its lead asset to treat anemia, ST10-021, with Austria-based AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals in return for an upfront payment of €1.25m and further milestone-based payments of up to €1.75m. The agreement valued Shield at €26.5m.
Shield had previously raised €6m in three private investment rounds.
Gunnar Weikert, chairman of Inventages and who will be joining Shield’s board, said: "ST10-021 has the potential to help a large number of patients who are currently on intravenous therapy or cannot cope with the side effects of oral ferrous drugs."
Shield was advised on the transaction by law firms Turner Parkinson (in the UK) and Kellerhals (in Switzerland).
Separately, last month, Shield hired Richard Jones as chief financial officer after he had more than 12 years of corporate finance and broking experience and was most recently head of healthcare at stockbroker Brewin Dolphin’s investment banking division.