Macrophage Pharma Limited, a Windsor, UK-based immune-oncology company, raised £9m in Series A equity financing.
The round was led by CRT Pioneer Fund with participation from Novo Seeds, part of Novo A/S, and Aglaia Biomedical Ventures.
The company will use the funds to complete the preclinical development of its lead development candidate, a p38MAP kinase inhibitor, and advance two additional discovery candidates into pre-clinical development.
Macrophage Pharma has also acquired global rights to a novel technology platform, Esterase Sensitive Motif (ESM), from Chroma Therapeutics Limited (Oxford, UK) together with discovery stage therapeutic assets. The newly acquired ESM technology platform delivers small molecule drugs to tumour associated macrophages in a highly selective manner, thus activating the body’s natural immune system to fight cancer. The platform has the ability to provide next-generation immunotherapies for a number of different cancers.
Led by Ian Miscampbell, Interim Chair, Macrophage Pharma is an immuno-oncology company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies designed to enhance anti-tumour immune responses. The company’s technology platform is designed to deliver small molecule drugs to tumour associated macrophages in a highly selective manner to activate the body’s natural immune system to fight cancer.
Macrophage’s lead p38MAPi program is focused on a novel macrophage-targeting p38 MAPK inhibitor with clinical trials scheduled to start in 2018. The company is also developing discovery stage programmes centred on a number of proprietary, candidate compounds.
FinSMEs
09/01/2017