AgomAb Therapeutics Completes €21M Series A Funding

agomabAgomAb Therapeutics N.V., a Ghent, Belgium-based biotherapeutics company developing agonistic antibodies for regeneration of damaged tissues, secured €21m in Series A financing.

The round was co-led by V-Bio Ventures and Advent France Biotechnology, joined by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Omnes and Pontifax.

Founded in 2017 based on the work of Paolo Michieli and his translational medicine team at the University of Torino, Italy, who have been studying the biology of Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) for almost 20 years, AgomAb is developing growth factor-mimetic agonistic monoclonal antibodies (“agomAbs”) with the potential to regenerate damaged tissues in collaboration with argenx.
The company has produced a comprehensive preclinical package illustrating a range of applications in the fields of fibrotic, inflammatory, autoimmune and degenerative diseases.

AgomAb has an experienced leadership team also including Tim Knotnerus, MSc, MBA, and Torsten Dreier, PhD.
Michieli, AgomAb’s founder and Chief Scientific Officer, is Laboratory Chief at the University of Torino Medical School in Italy. Prior to opening his lab in Torino, he spent several years conducting research at the National Cancer Institute, NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.
Knotnerus recently joined as Chief Executive Officer from AM-Pharma, a privately held biotech company where he was VP Corporate Development. Prior to AM-Pharma, Tim was at Aescap Venture, a European VC fund.
Dreier joined AgomAb as Chief Development Officer. Prior to AgomAb, he was co-founder and Chief Development Officer at argenx. Dreier has been developing antibodies for more than 20 years and has progressed 10 antibody products from preclinical research into clinical trials.

In addition, Dr. John Haurum has been appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors of AgomAb. He is an experienced Life Sciences Executive and Board Member. Most recently, Haurum was Chief Executive Officer of F-star, a leader in the discovery and development of novel bispecific antibodies that target the immune system.

Following the financing and the new appointments, AgomAb’s Board of Directors comprises:
– John Haurum as Chairman,
– Matthieu Coutet from Advent France Biotechnology,
– Ohad Hammer from Pontifax,
– Claire Poulard from Omnes,
– Katja Rosenkranz from V-Bio Ventures,
– Ilka Wicke from BIVF, and
– Paolo Michieli as Founder.

FinSMEs

03/04/2019

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