iOmx Therapeutics has closed a Series A financing round totalling EUR40 million, co-led by MPM Capital and Sofinnova Partners.
Wellington Partners and Merck Ventures also invested.
iOmx focuses on the development of cancer therapeutics addressing next-generation immune checkpoints. By systematically screening human tumour cells, the company has already identified a number of new targets and analysed their mode of action.
The proceeds of the financing round will be used to advance several proprietary product candidates up to initial clinical proof-of-concept.
iOmx was founded based on work from the laboratory of oncology expert and co-founder Philipp Beckhove, previously at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, and now at the RCI Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology.
The company’s screening platform was developed by co-founder Nisit Khandelwal, senior vice president of research. Additional co-founders include biotech executives and internationally renowned cancer specialists Patrick Baeuerle, Elmar Maier (CBO), and Sebastian Meier-Ewert (CEO).
"The development of checkpoint inhibitors represents a major advance in the treatment of certain cancers. However, despite some truly transformative successes, to date only a minority of patients benefit from existing treatment options. We aim to bring the advances in immuno-oncology to a greater proportion of cancer patients," says Meier-Ewert. "Therefore, we are proud to have attracted such an outstanding international investor base. The round was significantly oversubscribed, highlighting the expectation that immune checkpoint-based cancer therapeutics have great potential for changing the oncology landscape – and iOmx is excellently positioned to play a leading role in this field."
"We are thrilled to back iOmx, together with such a high profile investor syndicate. The company combines all the key features we are looking for when investing: an exceptional management team, world class science, and a market breaking technology platform that has the potential to build a strong pipeline of proprietary and more efficacious cancer therapeutics," says Henrijette Richter, chairwoman of iOmx’s board of directors and partner at Sofinnova Partners.
