Amsterdam, The Netherlands – 16 December 2021 – Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announces that it will lead an oversubscribed CHF 110M [~€105M,] Series B financing in clinical stage Swiss immune-oncology company Anaveon. The definitive investment agreement was announced by Anaveon today, with the closing of the transaction expected before year end.
The investment will be used by Anaveon to advance multiple Phase II programs in parallel to its ongoing Phase I/II study evaluating the safety, dosing and clinical activity in patients with solid tumors of its lead selective interleukin-2 (IL-2) program, ANV419. The funding will also be used to explore the therapeutic potential of ANV419 against less immunogenic tumors and to build on the company’s cytokine engineering capabilities for the treatment of diseases with immune dysregulation pathologies via pre-clinical stage programs.
Forbion will lead the financing and is joined by existing investor Novartis Venture Fund and new investors Cowen Pfizer Ventures and Pontifax. Founding investor Syncona will corner-stone the round.
Once the financing closes, Dr. Jasper Bos, General Parter at Forbion will join the Anaveon Board of Directors. Dr. Bos brings over 20 years of experience having held various positions including Senior Vice President and Managing Director at M Ventures, the venture arm of German pharmaceutical company Merck.
Andreas Katopodis, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Anaveon, commented:
“We are delighted to have attracted Forbion to this financing round alongside other leading European and US investors such as Syncona, Cowen, Pfizer Ventures and Pontifax. Their support underlines the potential of our assets and their belief in our ambitions to bring cancer therapies rapidly to patients with a high unmet medical need, as well as exploit the experience of our in-house cytokine engineering experts to broaden our pipeline for the benefit of patients suffering from diseases with immune dysregulation pathologies.”
Jasper Bos, General Partner at Forbion, added: "I look forward to working with Anaveon’s board to be support the company on its journey to progress ANV419 through the clinic and grow its pipeline into new indications. We have been very impressed by the scientific co-founders, management team, board of directors, and vision of the Company in their innovative cytokine engineering approach.”
Anaveon’s lead compound, ANV419, is designed to preferentially signal through the IL-2 beta/gamma receptor and therefore overcome known challenges of human IL-2 in its fight against tumors in the body. This novel type of therapeutic, if approved, could potentially have a wide utility in oncology, including in combination with cell therapies, vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors and radiotherapy.
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For more information please contact:
Media Enquiries (for Forbion)
Laura Asbjornsen, Head of Communications
Email: laura.asbjornsen@forbion.com
Tel: +31 (0)35 699 30 00
Consilium Strategic Communications
Kris Lam, Sue Charles
Email: forbion@consilium-comms.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 3709 5700
Notes to Editor
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 1.8 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 70 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 Program (ERP), LfA, Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI), AMUF and EFSI facilities and KfW Capital through the Program, “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 Anaveon
Anaveon is a clinical stage, biopharmaceutical company, based in Switzerland, that develops biologics to modulate the function of cytokines and provide substantial therapeutic benefit to cancer patients. Our vision is to develop novel immune therapies benefiting patients suffering from a wide variety of diseases with immune pathology. For further information please visit the Company’s website at: www.anaveon.com.