Merck Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for pharmaceutical firm Merck Group, has taken part in a €40m ($45m) series A round for Germany-based cancer therapeutics developer iOmx Therapeutics.
Venture capital firms MPM Capital and Sofinnova Partners co-led the round, which included fellow VC firm Wellington Partners. The funding was raised in July this year, according to a statement by iOmx.
Founded in March 2016, iOmx is developing a pipeline of immune-oncology drugs that will work by targeting immune checkpoints. The company is screening human tumour cells to identify targets which it will then analyse.
The financing will support the advance of several product candidates up to the initial clinical proof-of-concept stage.
Sebastian Meier-Ewert, chief executive of iOmx, said: “We are proud to have attracted such an outstanding international investor base.
“The round was significantly oversubscribed, highlighting the expectation that immune checkpoint-based cancer therapeutics have great potential for changing the oncology landscape – and iOmx is excellently positioned to play a leading role in this field.”