LONDON, 31 March 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Treos Bio Limited (“Treos”), a clinical stage biotechnology company using data science and proprietary biomarkers to develop precision off-the-shelf and personalized peptide cancer immunotherapies, today announced that it closed a $14 million convertible loan note financing. The financing was led by Luminous Ventures and the UK Government’s Future Fund, both first-time investors in Treos. In addition, Isabel Fox, Co-Managing Partner of Luminous Ventures, joined Treos’ Board of Directors.
The proceeds will fund Phase II clinical trials of lead candidate PolyPEPI-1018, the Company’s off-the-shelf investigational precision cancer immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with microsatellite stable metastatic colorectal cancer (MSS mCRC). In an earlier Phase I/II study in patients with MSS mCRC, PolyPEPI-1018 was shown to induce robust antigen-specific T cell responses and durable anti-tumor responses.
“We are pleased to invest in Treos and to support the clinical development of the Company’s novel cancer immunotherapy technology, which applies proprietary data science to digitally match the antigens expressed by a specific cancer to the individual patients’ genetics,” said Isabel Fox, Co-Managing Partner at Luminous Ventures. “Using new biomarkers, scientists at Treos have created an exciting platform to develop polypeptide immunotherapies that can potentially result in a clinical benefit for patients with many types of difficult-to-treat solid tumors.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Isabel to Treos’ Board and we are proud to partner with Luminous Ventures and the UK Government’s Future Fund, as their backing enables us to continue to refine our proprietary computational platform and advance our precision immunotherapy technology in the treatment of cancer,” said Dr. Christopher C. Gallen, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Treos. “Following this inflection point, we look forward to the initiation of two clinical trials within the next six months assessing PolyPEPI-1018 as an add-on to first line maintenance therapy and third line treatment in patients with MSS mCRC.”
About Treos Bio Limited
Treos Bio uses computational data science and proprietary biomarkers to develop precision off-the-shelf and personalized peptide cancer immunotherapies. The Company has developed a unique ability to match the antigens expressed by a specific cancer to the individual patients’ target recognition mechanism. This technology aims to address the challenge of the variability of individual patient’s clinical responses to cancer immunotherapies. Treos’ lead candidate is PolyPEPI-1018, an off-the-shelf immunotherapy for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, co-developed with a candidate companion diagnostic. Treos is developing personalized immunotherapies for several types of solid tumors and has completed preclinical development of off-the-shelf PolyPEPI immunotherapies in ovarian, breast, bladder, gastric and lung cancers and melanoma. The Company is also developing an investigational COVID-19 peptide vaccine, PolyPEPI-SCoV-2. Treos launched in February 2017 and has raised $28 million Series A funding led by shareholders of BXR Group. More information can be found at www.treosbio.com.
About Luminous Ventures
Luminous Ventures is a London-based VC fund investing in deep tech with a focus on the application of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, edge computing, robotics, quantum technologies and synthetic biology to healthcare, life science, nutrition and food in Europe and North America.
About the Future Fund
The Future Fund was established to support the UK’s innovative businesses currently affected by Covid-19. These businesses have been unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment. The Future Fund, now closed to new applications, provides eligible companies with convertible loans, on the condition that private investors at least match the government’s commitment. The convertible loans are designed to convert into equity at the next qualifying funding round. The Future Fund is developed by the government and delivered by the British Business Bank.
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