Medech startup Epitopea has raised $13.6m (£10.3m) in seed funding from a transatlantic syndicate including Advent Life Sciences, CTI Life Sciences, Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) and Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
Epitopea will use the seed investment to build its executive team, further research on tumour specific antigens and catalyse their translation into novel cancer immunotherapeutics.
Cambridge-based Epitopea is developing cancer immunotherapies by pursuing a new class of antigens that are shared between patients with the same cancer symptoms.
“With this significant seed financing by a syndicate of world-class investors from Canada and the UK, we can start translating these discoveries into novel therapeutics. We will be guided by science, deploying the best modalities available to help cancer patients achieve durable benefits,” said Dr Jon Moore, CEO, Epitopea and operating partner at Advent Life Sciences.
Founded in 2021 by Dr Claude Perreault and Dr Pierre Thibault, Epitopea consists of two sister companies in Cambridge, UK and Montreal, Canada.
Epitopea is one of the first recipients of Cambridge Innovation Capital’s raised £225m fund to invest in deeptech and life science startups based in Cambridge.
Cambridge Innovation Capital has previously invested in quantum computing software company Riverlane.
Further funding came from Novateur Ventures and the Harrington Discovery Institute/University Health Holdings.
“CTI is delighted to co-lead the seed round of Epitopea, which is the first investment from our third fund, CTI LSF III. We are convinced that Epitopea has the potential to fundamentally change the paradigm of how cancer patients can be treated with therapeutics vaccines and other immunotherapies to significantly improve their quality of life,” said Dr Laurence Rulleau, partner, CTI Life Sciences.
In February an NHS-backed competition awarded eight late-stage innovation projects a total of £9m in funding to develop cancer diagnosis technologies.
The post Epitopea prescribed £10m in funding for cancer research tech appeared first on UKTN | UK Tech News.
