Topas Therapeutics, a Germany-based developer of treatments for autoimmune diseases, completed a €22m ($25.9m) series B round yesterday backed by pharmaceutical company Evotec and Boehringer Ingelheim.
The round was co-led by Vesalius BioCapital III and BioMedPartners and included EMBL Ventures, the investment arm of European Molecular Biology Laboratory, as well as Epidarex Capital and Gimv, while Boehringer Ingelheim invested through Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF).
Founded in 2003, Topas is working on therapies for autoimmune diseases. Its lead asset, TPM203, is aimed at pemphigus vulgaris – a condition that causes painful blistering – and it also has a proposed treatment for coeliac disease dubbed TPM501 in its pipeline.
The company’s technology was co-developed by Johannes Herkel and Jörg Heeren at University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf with an initial focus on multiple sclerosis. They then partnered Bionamics, the commercialisation firm since acquired by Evotec, to advance the research.
The funding will facilitate the progression of TPM203 through clinical development and enable Topas to move TPM501 into clinical trials.
Marc Lohrmann of Vesalius BioCapital and Michael Wacker of BioMedPartners have joined the company’s supervisory board, while investment manager Sebastian Kreuz has replaced Detlev Mennerich as BIVF’s representative on the board.
Erich Greiner has been appointed chairman after having served on the board since 2016. Topas had closed a $20.6m series A round in 2017 backed by Evotec, BIVF, Epidarex Capital, EMBL Ventures and Gimv.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
