Emergence Therapeutics AG, a Duisburg, Germany-based biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibody drug conjugates (ADC) for the treatment of cancers, closed an €87m series A financing round.
The round was led by Pontifax Venture Capital and includes RA Capital Management, OrbiMed Advisors, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company) and Hadean Ventures as new investors as well as existing investors Kurma Partners, NRW.BANK, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Gründerfonds Ruhr and Bpifrance through its InnoBio 2 fund. Management also participated in the round.
Proceeds from this funding round will be used to advance the company’s antibody drug conjugate (ADC) targeting Nectin-4 to clinical proof-of-concept as well as the development of additional ADC programs.
Led by Jack Elands, CEO, Emergence is advancing ETx-22, a next-generation Nectin-4 ADC which has been optimized to increase efficacy and minimize toxicity. ETx-22 has shown to be selective for tumor-expressed Nectin-4 and has tumor-specific deconjugation resulting in reduced toxicity. ETx-22 will initially be developed for bladder and triple negative breast cancer as well as malignancies with medium and low nectin-4 expression levels, including ovarian, head and neck and lung cancer.
Proceeds from the financing will also support the development of a pipeline of further ADC candidates.
As part of the financing round, the Company announced the appointment of the following members to the Supervisory Board:
- Irina Staatz-Granzer (independent member, designated Chairperson)
- Roy Amariglio (OrbiMed Advisors)
- Ohad Hammer (Pontifax Venture Capital)
- Matthew Hammond (RA Capital Management)
- Olivier Martinez (Bpifrance)
- Peter Neubeck (Kurma Partners)
In addition, the following individuals are nominated as board observers:
- Anke Caßing (High-Tech Gründerfonds)
- Roger Franklin (Hadean Ventures)
- Thierry Laugel (Kurma Partners)
- Marek Kozlowski (NRW.BANK/Gründerfonds Ruhr)
The transaction is subject to standard regulatory approvals.
FinSMEs
14/12/2021