Alderaan Biotechnology, a preclinical stage company focused on monoclonal antibodies development for the treatment of cancer, announces today the successful completion of a Series A funding of €18.5M ($20.7M) from investors Advent France Biotechnology (AFB) and Medicxi. This follows a seed funding round of €1.5M ($1.7M) in 2017, led by AFB.
Founded by Pr Armand Bensussan, head of the Skin Research Centre, Saint Louis Hospital, Paris, and Pr Daniel Olive, head of the Immunity and Cancer team at Institut Paoli Calmette, Marseille, Alderaan Biotechnology focusses on developing technologies to deplete regulatory T (Treg) cells in cancer and to boost Natural Killer (NK) cell cytotoxic activity in cancer, both emerging as new immunotherapy modalities.
This funding round will support the finalization of preclinical development to reach Phase I clinical stage, with the company’s Treg depleting CD25-specific antibodies, by 2022. In parallel, the financing will also help validate the in vivo therapeutic potential of the NK asset related to the activating NK cell receptor CD160-TM (Alderaan’s second program).
Both Medicxi and AFB, represented by Michèle Ollier and Matthieu Coutet respectively, will co-lead the new investment as board directors.
“I am very pleased to welcome Medicxi to the company; its capital investment signals an exciting stage for Alderaan,” said Arnaud Foussat, CEO of Alderaan Biotechnology. “Modulating regulatory T-cells in cancer has a great therapeutic potential in oncology – it could be a game changer. Our NK asset is earlier stage, but there is already a strong and encouraging interest from the pharmaceutical industry in the field.”
“We have been working alongside Alderaan since day one and we are thrilled to be part of this next stage of development,” said Matthieu Coutet, managing partner at Advent France Biotechnology. “Alderaan’s area of focus is drawing attention from big names in the industry and the company has a solid scientific team to support its rationale.”
“Alderaan perfectly fits with our aim, which is to invest in start-ups that have already reached scientific maturation and proof-of-concept,” said Michèle Ollier, partner at Medicxi. “The company’s technologies are very attractive to the pharmaceutical industry and could become key additional therapeutic tools for patients and health professionals.”