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Forbion Co-leads $68m Investment in Newly Launched Antibody-Drug Conjugate Specialist Pheon Therapeutics

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Naarden, The Netherlands – 28 September 2022 – Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announces that it has co-led a $68m Series A round in newly launched Pheon Therapeutics (Pheon) together with Brandon Capital and Atlas Venture, with seed investor Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) also participating in the financing. Rogier Rooswinkel, General Partner at Forbion will join the Pheon Board of Directors. Pheon is the latest investment from the Forbion Ventures Fund V which concentrates on company building and expansion in the European market. 

Pheon is a leading Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) specialist developing next generation ADCs for a wide range of hard-to-treat cancers. This investment will enable Pheon to advance its lead ADC program to clinical proof-of-concept and establish a pipeline of novel ADCs.  

Pheon’s lead program exploits a novel target that is highly expressed in a broad range of solid tumors and is expected to reach IND within the next 18 months. Pheon uses both novel and clinically validated mAbs, arming them either with warheads from its proprietary payload platform which boasts a novel mechanism of action, or with off-the-shelf linker payload combinations.  

Chief Executive Officer Bertrand Damour heads the Company’s leadership team which includes industry veteran Leigh Zawel as Chief Scientific Officer. Pheon’s co-founders include Paul Jackson, Vice President R&D, and advisor Professor David Thurston. Professor Thurston was previously co-founder of Spirogen, whose payload technology is contained within Zynlonta™, a recently approved ADC. 

Bertrand Damour, Chief Executive Officer of Pheon Therapeutics, commented: “Pheon is developing a first-in-class ADC and has built a highly differentiated proprietary payload platform which is gaining strong momentum. We are laser-focused on implementing our strategy to get our first program into clinical development as rapidly as possible and the preclinical data generated so far are very promising. The track record and expertise of the leadership team at Pheon is outstanding and I am proud to be working with them on this innovative approach to developing treatments for cancer patients.” 

Rogier Rooswinkel, General Partner at Forbion, added: “Recent clinical successes in the ADC field have really cemented the benefits that ADC can bring to patients; particularly using novel payloads. In Pheon, we saw a unique opportunity of combining new antibodies against attractive first-in-class targets with novel payload technology. We are pleased to have co-led this significant financing and look forward to working with Bertrand and the Board to progress the development of these promising oncology candidates.” 

The Company’s Board includes Michael Gladstone, Partner at Atlas Venture; Jonathan Tobin, Chair, Partner at Brandon Capital; Rogier Rooswinkel, General Partner at Forbion; and Shaun Kirkpatrick, President Biotechnologies at Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) and Bertrand Damour, CEO of Pheon Therapeutics.  

-Ends- 

For more information please contact:  

Forbion and BGV 
Laura Asbjornsen
Head of Communications
Email: laura.asbjornsen@forbion.com

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 over 30 life sciences investment professionals that have built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in 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 

About Pheon Therapeutics  

Pheon Therapeutics is an Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) specialist developing a pipeline of monotherapies for novel targets and/or with novel payloads. ADCs offer the potential to treat solid tumors and liquid cancers that have not responded to other treatments. Pheon’s lead program is a first-in-class ADC against a novel target that is highly expressed in solid tumors across a broad range of hard-to-treat cancer types. Pheon is backed by expert, specialist healthcare investors Atlas Venture, Brandon Capital, Forbion and Research Corporation Technologies (RCT). Pheon has a world class, proven leadership team that brings together the best of ADC engineering, clinical and managerial expertise and track record.  

For further information, please visit www.pheontx.com

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