Million-euro financial injection for cancer vaccines development
New European and US investors: Nouscom Raises €67.5 million in Oversubscribed Series C Financing Round
Nouscom, a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing off-the-shelf and personalized viral vector-based cancer vaccines targeting neoantigens, announced the completion of its oversubscribed Series C equity financing raising €67.5 million ($72 million) from a syndicate of renowned international healthcare investors.
The Series C round was co-led by Andera Partners, Bpifrance (through its InnoBio 2 fund) and M Ventures, with participation from Revelation Partners, Indaco Venture Partners, Panakès Partners, XGen Ventures, and other undisclosed investors together with continued support from existing investors 5AM Ventures, EQT Life Sciences and Versant Ventures. Concurrent with the financing, representatives from Andera Partners, Bpifrance and M Ventures have joined the Nouscom Board of Directors.
The proceeds will be used to continue advancing and expanding Nouscom’s wholly owned clinical pipeline to achieve multiple clinical value catalysts, including:
- Readout from Nouscom’s ongoing randomized Phase 2 clinical trial for NOUS-209, an off-the-shelf vaccine targeting 209 shared neoantigens, in combination with pembrolizumab for the treatment of Mismatch Repair/Microsatellite Instable (dMMR/MSI) Metastatic Colorectal Cancer (mCRC).
- Final readout from the ongoing Phase 1b study and advancement of NOUS-209 monotherapy in Lynch Syndrome (LS) carriers investigating the potential to intercept, prevent or delay cancer before it occurs. LS carriers have a genetic predisposition to and consequently higher risk of developing certain cancers. Promising initial results from this study were reported in a Late-breaking Abstract at the recent Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2023 Annual Meeting.
- Completion of a Phase 1b study evaluating NOUS-PEV, a personalized cancer immunotherapy, in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in patients with advanced melanoma and entry into randomized Phase 2 trials in indications with high unmet medical needs.
Dr. Marina Udier, Chief Executive Officer of Nouscom, said: “This oversubscribed financing, in what is a challenging environment for all biotech companies, is testament to the faith that new and existing investors place in Nouscom and our best-in-class technology. I am constantly inspired by the relentless drive our team exhibits on a daily basis to advancing our innovative medicines for the benefit of cancer patients. This financing will allow us to further accelerate development across our wholly owned clinical portfolio reporting multiple clinical trial readouts including from our ongoing randomized Phase 2 clinical trial with NOUS-209. These Phase 2 data, if positive, have the potential to position Nouscom’s neoantigen based cancer vaccines amongst the most thrilling developments in the field.”
Dr. Goran Ando, Independent Chairman of Nouscom, said: “In conjunction with the financing, I am delighted to welcome all our new investors to the company and Sofia, Thibaut and Hakan from Andera, Bpifrance and M Ventures, respectively, to our Board of Directors. Together, with the experience of our existing Board Members, I look forward to their contributions as Nouscom navigates the next exciting steps in its journey.”
Dr. Sofia Ioannidou, Partner of Andera Partners, said: “We at Andera are delighted to support Marina and her team in their mission to advance the development of their innovative cancer treatments for patients. We believe that the robustness of the clinical results generated so far positions Nouscom as one of the leading biotech companies in the vibrant neoantigen cancer vaccine space. We look forward to supporting the company towards the further clinical validation of its platform.”
Dr. Thibaut Roulon, Senior Investment Director at Bpifrance, said: “We consider Nouscom’s neoantigen cancer vaccine platform to be one of the most promising. It is backed by excellent science and increasingly promising clinical data. The next couple of years will be exciting as ongoing clinical trials complete and further validate its potential.”
Dr. Hakan Goker, Managing Director and Head of Biotechnology Investments at M Ventures, said: “A key criteria for our investment in Nouscom was the quality of the data that have been presented over the past few years, the breadth of its pipeline, and the expertise built in the team. The emerging data positions Nouscom’s pipeline among the most exciting in the field of neoantigen based cancer vaccines creating significant value for the company. We are excited to support the company to continue bringing these innovative candidates closer to patients.”
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