Category: Press Releases

New investors Alsa Holdings and UCL Technology Fund join Epidarex Capital

Proceeds will allow IGEM Therapeutics to continue development of IgE therapeutic antibody portfolio and novel IgE-based platform technology

London, November 30th, 2018 – IGEM Therapeutics (IGEM Therapeutics or “the Company”), an immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer, announced it has secured an additional £3 million to close its Series A round at £5 million. Two new investors, Alsa Holdings and UCL Technology Fund (co-managed by Albion Capital and UCLB, UCL’s commercialisation company) have joined initial investor Epidarex Capital who also committed further capital in this second close.

The funding will enable IGEM Therapeutics to further develop its portfolio of IgE antibody candidates against a variety of cancers. The epsilon constant region of IgE has evolved to fight complex, multicellular parasitic organisms resident in tissue by recruiting powerful immune effector cells such as macrophages, basophils and monocytes. IGEM Therapeutics believes that potent immune responses arising from IgE are suited to the destruction of solid tumours which also reside in tissue. Pre-clinical proof of concept data repeatedly shows superior efficacy for IgE versus cognate IgG antibodies in a range of cancer models.

Alek Safarian, Chief Executive Officer of Alsa Holdings, commented: “We are excited by the promise that IGEM Therapeutics’s technology holds for major therapeutic advances in a host of oncology indications, and are looking forward to working with the management team to help bring new options to oncology patients in the future.”

Dr Christoph Ruedig, Partner at Albion Capital commented: “The UCL Technology Fund strives to back innovative early stage companies that are seeking to translate ground-breaking research into commercial and societal impact. The pioneering work of Dr Sophia Karagiannis and her collaborators, which includes significant clinical development by clinical academics from UCL, highlight the profound potential of IgE antibody technology in cancer therapeutics.  We are delighted to invest alongside Epidarex and Alsa and look forward to working with IGEM Therapeutics’s accomplished executive team.”

Dr Peter Finan, Partner at Epidarex Capital, commented: “IGEM Therapeutics continues to make great progress on this disruptive platform. We look forward to working closely with Alsa and Albion to maximise IGEM Therapeutics’s potential”

Dr Tim Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of IGEM Therapeutics, commented: “This new financing will allow IGEM Therapeutics to continue to pioneer the development of IgE therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer. We are very pleased to have attracted new investors of the calibre of Alsa Holdings and UCL Technology/Albion to IGEM Therapeutics as well as receiving further investment from initial investor Epidarex Capital.”

About IGEM Therapeutics

IGEM Therapeutics is a UK immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer. Unlike immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgE has evolved to kill tissue-dwelling multicellular parasites endowing it with several key features that make it ideal for the treatment of solid tumours.

Pre-clinical proof of concept has been obtained with two different IgE antibodies both showing significantly greater efficacy versus IgG comparators. IGEM Therapeutics is a spin out of King’s College London and has an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Sophia Karagiannis, a global leader in the field of IgE antibodies.

About Alsa Holdings

ALSA Holdings is a Europe based biotechnology investment firm with a focus on novel therapeutics at preclinical POC or early clinical development stage. The firm is managed by the founder and ex-CEO of Novotech, a leading midsize clinical CRO. The firm have considerable expertise and experience in clinical development and are an active investor. They have no geographic or therapeutic area constraints, and are equally open to seeding new companies, as investing in later syndicated rounds, or as a sole investor.

About UCL Technology Fund

The UCL Technology Fund is dedicated to investing in intellectual property commercialisation opportunities arising from UCL’s world-class research base, focusing in particular on the physical and life sciences. The Fund supports UCL in achieving the full potential of innovations that have prospects for outstanding societal and market impact, right through the development journey from initial proof of concept to practical commercial application.

The Fund is co-managed by Albion Capital, one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK in collaboration with UCLB, UCL’s commercialisation company, building on their 15-year relationship.

About Albion Capital Group LLP

Albion Capital is a leading independent investment manager with a long-term record of partnering ambitious business. The Albion Group has funds of over £1 billion under investment management or administration and has increasingly focussed on technology, specifically software and tech enabled services. Albion Capital Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

About UCLB

UCL Business PLC (UCLB), part of UCL Innovation & Enterprise, is a leading technology commercialisation company that supports research and innovations arising from UCL, one of the UK’s top research-led universities. UCLB has a successful track record and a strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics. UCLB has a strong track record in commercialising medical technologies and provides technology transfer services to UCL’s associated hospitals; University College London Hospitals, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Free London Hospital. It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from laboratory to market.

About Epidarex Capital

Epidarex Capital invests in early-stage, high growth life science and health technology companies primarily in the United Kingdom and United States. Epidarex was created to meet the need for more sector-specific risk capital for young companies, including spin-outs from leading research universities in up-and-coming life science hubs. The fund’s international management team has a track record of successfully partnering with top scientists and entrepreneurs to develop highly innovative products for the global healthcare market.

For more information please contact:

Tim Wilson
Chief Executive Officer
IGEM Therapeutics
tim@igemtherapeutics.com
+44 (0)20 3078 9675

Communications advisor to IGEM Therapeutics:
Simon Conway
Senior Managing Director
FTI Consulting
simon.conway@fticonsulting.com
+44 (0)20 3727 1000

London, 12 October 2018 – IGEM Therapeutics (IGEM), an immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer, today announced that it has won the “Best Start-up Biotech Company” award at the OBN Awards 2018.

The award recognises IGEM Therapeutics as a UK registered start-up biotech company making a significant impact in the sector through news flow, successful fundraising and execution of a robust business plan. The ceremony on Thursday 11 October marked the 10^th anniversary of the OBN Awards, which celebrate success stories from the UK life sciences industry over the past year.

Dr Tim Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of IGEM Therapeutics, commented: “We are thrilled that IGEM Therapeutics Therapeutics has been awarded “Best Start-up Biotech Company” at this year’s prestigious OBN Awards. The award recognises our efforts to treat cancer by developing novel immunoglobin E antibodies and our significant progress as a company over the last year.”

 

About IGEM Therapeutics

IGEM Therapeutics is a UK immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer. Unlike immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgE has evolved to kill tissue-dwelling multicellular parasites endowing it with several key features that make it ideal for the treatment of solid tumours.

Pre-clinical proof of concept has been obtained with two different IgE antibodies both showing significantly greater efficacy versus IgG comparators. IGEM Therapeutics is a spin out of King’s College London with financing from Epidarex Capital and has an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Sophia Karagiannis, a global leader in the understanding of IgE antibodies.

For further information visit www.epsilogen.com

For more information please contact:

Tim Wilson

Chief Executive Officer

IGEM Therapeutics

tim@epsilogen.com

+44 (0)20 3078 9675

 

Communications advisor to IGEM Therapeutics:

Simon Conway

Senior Managing Director

FTI Consulting

simon.conway@fticonsulting.com

+44 (0)20 3727 1000

IGEM Therapeutics shortlisted as a finalist in the “Best Start-up Biotech Company” category of the 2018 OBN Awards 

London, 22 August 2018– IGEM Therapeutics (IGEM), an immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer, today announced that it has been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2018 OBN Awards in the “Best Start-up Biotech Company” category.

The “Best Start-up Biotech Company” award recognises a UK registered start-up biotech company that was incorporated on or after 1 June 2016, is making an impact on the industry via significant news flow, has successfully raised seed or Series A fundraising, is conducting early clinical trial activity and can demonstrate clear evidence of early stage implementation of a robust business plan.

2018 marks the 10th Anniversary of the OBN Awards, which recognise the leading lights of the life sciences industry in the UK. The winners will be announced at the OBN Awards evening on Thursday 11 October at the Examination Schools in Oxford.

Dr Tim Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of IGEM Therapeutics, commented: “We are delighted that IGEM Therapeutics has been shortlisted as a finalist in the “Best Start-up Biotech Company” category at the OBN Awards. To be considered for these prestigious awards is recognition of our efforts to develop novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies for the treatment of cancer.”

£1.45 million grant from Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Funds enable IGEM Therapeutics to progress second product candidate towards the clinic

London, 9 May 2018 – IGEM Therapeutics (IGEM), an immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer, today announced the award of a £1.45 million grant from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK. IGEM Therapeutics will use the Biomedical Catalyst award to further the development of IGEM-Ch, a novel IgE antibody targeting solid tumours.

IGEM-Ch is a novel and proprietary humanised IgE antibody that binds to the cancer antigen CSPG4 (chondroitin sulphate proteoglycan 4). The CSPG4 antigen is overexpressed in melanoma and various other cancers including triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Pre-clinical studies in the laboratory of Dr Sophia Karagiannis at King’s College London demonstrated that an anti-CSPG4 IgE outperformed an equivalent IgG antibody in a variety of challenging models. The company will receive £1.02M in net funding from the Biomedical Catalyst award to help progress IGEM-Ch into clinical trials by generation of a pre-clinical development package and efficient GMP manufacturing process. IGEM Therapeutics has issued patents covering the antibody in the US, Europe and Australia.

IGEM Therapeutics is building a portfolio of IgE antibodies directed against various cancer antigens including folate receptor alpha, CSPG4, HER2 and EGFR. The epsilon constant region of IgE has evolved to fight complex, multicellular parasitic organisms resident in tissue by recruiting powerful immune effector cells such as macrophages, basophils and monocytes. IGEM Therapeutics believes that potent immune responses arising from IgE are suited to the destruction of solid tumours which also reside in tissue. IGEM Therapeutics has demonstrated superior efficacy for IgE versus IgG equivalent antibodies in a range of pre-clinical cancer models. The company’s scientific founders, Dr Sophia Karagiannis, Professor James Spicer and Dr Vivienne Cox have previously transitioned the first-in-class IgE, IGEM-F, into a Phase 1 clinical trial in cancer patients.

“IGEM Therapeutics is a pioneer in the use of IgE antibodies to treat cancer. We are very proud to have received significant funding from Innovate UK which will help us take our second antibody, IGEM-Ch, into the clinic. Our goal is to harness the potency of the IgE-mediated immune response and thereby provide patients with new safe and effective treatment options for these serious diseases”.

Dr Tim Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of IGEM Therapeutics

 

Cambridge, UK, 04 April 2018: IONTAS Limited (IONTAS), a leader in the discovery and optimisation of fully human antibodies, announced today that it will collaborate with Epsilogen (IGEM), an immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer. The project will add to Epsilogen’s pipeline of drugs and expand upon IGEM-F, an IgE targeting ovarian and other cancers, currently in a Phase 1/2a study. IONTAS will utilise its proprietary antibody discovery technology to help Epsilogen identify novel IgE antibodies against two targets.

IgE antibodies have been shown to permeate tumour tissue more effectively, exhibit enhanced effector functions and stimulate significantly greater levels of cytotoxicity and phagocytosis than IgG antibodies. IONTAS will apply its proprietary antibody discovery libraries and technologies to identify specific, high-affinity antibodies against two tumour-associated targets. Functional screening of IgE-formatted antibodies will be carried out to identify the most appropriate candidates for therapeutic development.

John McCafferty, CEO at IONTAS, commented: “This collaboration capitalises on the antibody discovery capabilities at IONTAS which enable the generation of high-quality therapeutic antibodies using phage-display or mammalian-display. We maintain a strong interest in developing novel therapeutic approaches and recognise IgE therapeutics as an important addition to the armoury of novel cancer therapies. We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with fellow innovators at Epsilogen on these two exciting projects.”

Tim Wilson, CEO at Epsilogen, commented: “IONTAS was selected as our development partner of choice because of their extensive experience and track record in delivering therapeutic antibodies. The combination of the Epsilogen IgE platform and the discovery capability of IONTAS will rapidly expand our portfolio of antibodies and help meet our ambitions to progress new leads into the clinic.”

For further information, please visit: https://www.iontas.co.uk/technologies/

 

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About IONTAS www.iontas.co.uk  

IONTAS is a biotechnology company focused on antibody discovery and cutting-edge technology development. IONTAS offers services for antibody discovery using Phage Display Technology; and the supply of bespoke phage display libraries. In addition, IONTAS offers proprietary antibody discovery platforms including Mammalian Display where full length antibodies are expressed in the context of a mammalian cell thereby allowing selection based on function, stability, expression and developability; Iontas have also developed a novel “KnotBody” format which facilitates the targeting of antibodies to ion channels, GPCRs and proteases.

 

 

About Epsilogen https://epsilogen.com/

Epsilogen is a UK immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer. Unlike immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgE has evolved to kill tissue-dwelling multicellular parasites endowing it with several key features that make it ideal for the treatment of solid tumours. Epsilogen is a spin out of King’s College London and has an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Sophia Karagiannis, a global leader in IgE’s. Epsilogen closed a Series A financing led by Epidarex Capital in April 2017.

IGEM Therapeutics completes initial closing of series A financing;

Raises £2 million from Epidarex Capital to progress pipeline of IgE antibody drug candidates to treat cancer

IgE antibodies shown to offer greater efficacy than IgG comparator in cancer models

Dr. Tim Wilson appointed Chief Executive Officer

London, 20 June 2017 – IGEM Therapeutics (IGEM), an immuno-oncology company developing novel immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to treat cancer, today announced the closing of a £2 million Series A investment from Epidarex Capital, a specialist early stage life science venture capital firm. IGEM Therapeutics is now seeking further investment to complete the round. In addition, IGEM Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Dr. Tim Wilson as Chief Executive Officer.

The funding will enable IGEM Therapeutics to continue to invest in pipeline development as it builds its portfolio of IgE antibody candidates, including those that target folate receptor alpha, HER2, EGFR and PD-L1, and will support the further development of IgE antibody platform technology based on protein and glyco-engineering. IGEM Therapeutics will benefit from the expertise of scientific founder Dr. Sophia Karagiannis of King’s College London (KCL) who is recognised as a world leader in the field. The epsilon constant region of IgE has evolved to fight complex, multicellular parasitic organisms resident in tissue by recruiting powerful immune effector cells such as macrophages, basophils and monocytes. IGEM Therapeutics believes that potent immune responses arising from IgE are suited to the destruction of solid tumours which also reside in tissue. Dr Karagiannis’s team has demonstrated superior efficacy for IgE versus cognate immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies in a range of pre-clinical cancer models.

Tim Wilson joins IGEM Therapeutics as Chief Executive Officer with 28 years of experience in the life sciences sector, ranging from venture capital and start-ups to investment banking and equity research. He has worked with hundreds of private and public life science companies in the US and Europe at all stages of development, from start-ups to industry leaders. He holds a PhD in molecular biology from Cambridge University and a BSc in biochemistry from Imperial College, London.
Dr Sophia Karagiannis of King’s College London and Scientific Founder of IGEM Therapeutics said: “The funding from Epidarex Capital will enable IGEM Therapeutics to grow its portfolio of IgE antibody candidates and to develop its antibody platform. We believe that IgE antibodies are ideally suited to the treatment of solid tumours and we look forward to working with IGEM Therapeutics to realise their potential.”

Dr Peter Finan, Venture Partner at Epidarex Capital, added: “IGEM Therapeutics is pursuing an exciting and differentiated approach to cancer therapy. Epidarex is delighted to have created IGEM Therapeutics and led the Series A investment. We are also very pleased to have been able to recruit Dr Tim Wilson to lead IGEM Therapeutics as CEO. We look forward to working closely with him to build a highly innovative company at the forefront of cancer.”

“The raising of £2 million in Series A funding is a testament to the compelling research results generated by Dr Karagiannis and her team at KCL. I look forward to leading the Company as we create important new therapies for the treatment of cancer.”

Dr Tim Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of IGEM Therapeutics