Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company Anokion has secured CHF 33m ($37.4m) in a series A round co-led by corporate venturing units Novartis Venture Fund and Novo Ventures, and venture capital firm Versant Ventures.
Spun-off from technical university Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Anokion will use the funding to develop clinical candidates based around its technology, which retrains white blood cells to induce therapeutic immune tolerance.
Anokion will target candidates to treat autoimmune and allergic diseases. The first clinical trials are initially planned for 2017.
Florent Gros, the managing director of Novartis Venture Fund, and Jack Nielsen, a partner at Novo Ventures, will join Anokion’s board, along with Versant Ventures managing director Tom Woiwode. In addition, Jens Kurth, head of Novartis’ global biologics franchise, will join Akonion as its chief technology officer.