Camel-IDS, a Brussels-based company developing cancer-targeted radiopharmaceuticals today announced the completion of a series-A financing round, whereby the company secured funding of EUR 37 million. Gimv, who leads this round together with V-Bio Ventures, invests EUR 6 million. They are joined by HealthCap, Novo Seeds, Pontifax and BioMedPartners. This financing, which is one of the larger rounds of a European early-stage life sciences company, will enable Camel-IDS to run a phase Ib/II trial with its lead program targeting brain metastatic breast cancer, while further progressing and broadening its preclinical pipeline.
Camel-IDS (www.camel-ids.com), which was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), develops novel radiopharmaceuticals, using camelid domain antibodies linked to radionuclides. Breast cancer patients with tumors that overexpress HER2, a growth-promoting protein, can benefit from effective targeted treatments today. However, they have a poor prognosis when the cancer progresses towards the brain. Camel-IDS’ lead program shall be used to effectively irradiate such brain lesions while sparing healthy tissue. This is based on its unique technology platform that leverages the favourable tissue distribution of camelid derived single domain antibodies linked to radionuclides.
Karl Naegler, Partner in Gimv’s Health & Care platform, adds: ‘From early on in our discussions, the renowned expertise of the Camel-IDS’ team in radio-immunotherapy became clear, with Prof. Tony Lahoutte bringing exceptional knowledge to the table. Together with Ruth Devenyns as CEO, an industry veteran of the European biotech landscape and successful entrepreneur, the company is well positioned to move up to the next level.’
This investment marks Gimv’s 4th investment in the life sciences, medtech and healthcare sector this year, thus further underpinning Gimv’s position as one of the most active European investors in the healthcare industry. Moreover, this brings the total number of portfolio companies in the Health & Care investment platform to no less than 21.
For further information, we refer to the company’s press release in attachment.
