Valo Therapeutics Limited, an Oxford, UK and Helsinki, Finland-based immuno-oncology company developing tumour antigen-coated oncolytic viruses as therapeutic vaccines, received EUR1.1m in additional funding.
The funding, triggered by positive pre-clinical data, will be used to progress its PeptiCRAd platform into first-in-human clinical trials. The company has now raised a total of over EUR 10m.
The total EUR 10m funding comprises the recent EUR 1.1m from existing investors, a non-dilutive loan from The Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Business Finland, previously Tekes), and seed capital from private investors.
Led by Dr Michael Stein, CEO, Valo Tx is an immunotherapy company that is developing antigen-coated oncolytic viruses as anti-cancer therapeutic vaccines. The Valo Tx platform, PeptiCRAd (Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus), developed out of the laboratory of Professor Vincenzo Cerullo at the University of Helsinki, turns oncolytic adenoviruses into targeted tissue specific cancer vaccines without the need to generate and manufacture multiple genetically modified viruses. The company is also developing PeptiENV, among other neoantigen strategies, in collaboration with Professor Cerullo, which is expected to improve the therapeutic response to enveloped oncolytic viruses in the treatment of multiple forms of cancer. Its first clinical trial will target melanoma, lung cancer and triple negative breast cancer.
To translate its research into effective treatments for patients with cancer, the company plans to complete a Series A by summer 2020.
FinSMEs
10/02/2020