Engimmune Therapeutics, a Basel, Switzerland-based biotech company developing novel T-cell receptor (TCR)-based therapeutics, raised CHF 15.5M in Seed funding.
The round was led by Pureos Bioventures and Novo Holdings with incubation from BaseLaunch.
The company intends to use the funds to further build its pipeline, expand the research team in Switzerland and build a presence in Denmark, with a focus on GMP-certified manufacturing, clinical development, and regulatory affairs.
Led by CEO Søren Mouritsen, Engimmune Therapeutics is a technology platform and product-based company using technologies to engineer potent and specific T cell receptor (TCR) therapies. By applying proprietary platform technologies combining genome editing, functional high-throughput screening, deep sequencing and machine learning, Engimmune addresses key efficacy and safety challenges that currently limit the full potential of TCR-T cell and soluble TCR therapeutics. Its lead products are focused on oncology, with potential to expand to autoimmune diseases in the future.
The company is a spinout from the lab of Prof Sai Reddy at ETH Zurich and Dr Rodrigo Vazquez-Lombardi, co-inventor of the company’s platform technologies, who is now its Chief Scientific Officer.
Engimmune Therapeutics also announced the appointment of TCR pioneer and industry veteran Dr Bent Jakobsen as Chairman of the Board. Former chief scientist and co-founder of Immunocore, a soluble TCR therapeutics company, and Adaptimmune, an adoptive TCR-T cell therapy company, Dr Jakobsen is a global expert in the field of T cell immunology. As part of the transaction, Dominik Escher and Jørgen Søberg Petersen join as Board Directors, and Ximing Ding and João Ribas join as Observers.
FinSMEs
03/05/2022