Naarden, The Netherlands, November 22, 2022 – Forbion portfolio company CatalYm today announced the close of a EUR 50 million (USD 49 million) Series C financing round. The oversubscribed round was co-led by new investors, Brandon Capital and Jeito Capital with participation from existing investors Forbion, Novartis Venture Fund, Vesalius Biocapital III, Bayern Kapital, BioGeneration Ventures and Coparion. The financing will support the continued, promising clinical development of its lead candidate, visugromab, a humanized monoclonal antibody engineered to neutralize the tumor-produced Growth Differentiation Factor-15 (GDF-15). GDF-15 acts as a key regulator of immune cell activation and as an inhibitor of immune cell infiltration into the tumor tissue
General Partner at Forbion, Rogier Rooswinkel, PhD, commented, “Catalym is a stellar example of the Forbion Ventures III strategy, whereby we specifically seek to build companies around exciting ideas and assets that can potentially have meaningful impact to patients’ lives. We are very excited to have closed this heavily oversubscribed upround in CatalYm with these lead investors. It is a testimony to the exciting visugromab clinical data as well as the strong and experienced team at the company.”
CatalYm is developing innovative immunotherapies targeting Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF-15) to transform the tumor microenvironment and to substantially improve treatment options for patients with cancer. By making tumors accessible and susceptible again for the patient‘s own immune system, CatalYm continues to develop its approach to overcome major limitations of existing immunotherapies and to improve cancer patient survival and quality of life.
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Read the CatalYm release here
About CatalYm
CatalYm has identified GDF-15 as a central regulator of the immune system in the tumor microenvironment. We are pioneering the reversal of GDF-15-mediated immunosuppression to induce a potent antitumoral immune reaction in non-responsive tumors. CatalYm’s lead program visugromab is poised to demonstrate clinical proof-of-concept in multiple solid tumor indications which will expand the treatment horizon for current and future immunotherapies.
About Visugromab (CTL-002)
Visugromab, formerly known as CTL-002, is a humanized, monoclonal antibody designed to neutralize the tumor-produced Growth Differentiation Factor-15 (GDF-15). GDF-15 secretion by the tumor has been shown to prevent T cell migration into the tumor and suppresses T cell function and the adaptive immune response in the tumor microenvironment. This enables the tumor to evade the immune system and become resistant to standard of care and current immunotherapy approaches such as checkpoint inhibitors. Visugromab counteracts these immuno-suppressive mechanisms by neutralizing GDF-15, enhancing the infiltration of immune cells into the tumor, improving both priming of T cells by dendritic cells and tumor killing by T cells and NK cells.
About Forbion
Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Singapore. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the (bio-) pharmaceutical space. Forbion manages well over EUR 2 billion across multiple fund strategies that cover all stages of (bio-) pharmaceutical drug development. Forbion’s current team consists of 20 life sciences investment professionals that have built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in over 92 companies. The firm is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Besides financial objectives, Forbion selects investments that will positively affect the health and well-being of patients. Its investors include the EIF, through its European Recovery Programme (ERP), LfA, Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI), AMUF and EFSI facilities and KfW Capital through the Programme, “ERP – Venture Capital Fonds investments”. Forbion operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early-stage funds, especially focused on Benelux and Germany.
For more information, please visit: www.forbion.com
Contact
CatalYm GmbH
Dr. Phil L’Huillier, CEO
info@catalym.com
Media Inquiries
Laura Asbjornsen
Head of Communications
Forbion
Laura.asbjornsen@forbion.com