Amal Therapeutics, a Geneva, Switzerland-based biotech company, completed a CHF 3m (€2.75m) in Series A funding.
The round was led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) with participation from VI Partners and High-Tech Gründerfonds. In conjunction with the funding, Dr. Frank Kalkbrenner from the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and Dr. Frank Hensel from the High-Tech Gruenderfonds will join the Board as Board Observers. Dr. Diego Braguglia from VI Partners will also become a member of Amal’s Supervisory Board.
The company intends to use the funds to progress cancer vaccines.
Incorporated in 2012 as spin-off from the University of Geneva by Dr. Madiha Derouazi, CEO, Amal Therapeutics develops and progresses therapeutic cancer vaccines, which combine a Cell Penetrating Peptide (CPP) with a multi-antigenic chimeric cargo with various CD8+ and CD4+ epitopes and a constitutive activator of dendritic cells, enabling them to simultaneously stimulate multi-epitopic cytotoxic T cell-mediated immunity, induce helper T (Th) cells and promote immunological memory. The company is in the preclinical development with its lead vaccine (ATP124) for colorectal cancer and is advancing the KISIMA technology platform for therapeutic tumor vaccination. This novel technology is able to generate potent long lasting anti-tumor immunity and avoid tumor immune escape.