HEPHAISTOS secures €10.3 M to reach the clinical stage
May 16 2024 - 12:00AM
PR: HEPHAISTOS secures €10.3 M to reach the
clinical stage
HEPHAISTOS-Pharma welcomes Elaia to
complete its Seed Round, securing a total of €10.3 million from
investors and non-dilutive financing.
- €4.5M seed round led by
Elaia with xista sciences ventures, Fondation Fournier-Majoie,
Noshaq, Angels Santé and Femmes Business Angels.
- €5.8M non-dilutive funding
from the EIC accelerator, Bpifrance i-Nov, and France 2030 clinical
grant.
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ONCO-Boost is a first-in-class immunostimulant targeting
innate immune response to treat cancers non-responding to current
regimens, including immunotherapies.
France, May 16th, 2024. HEPHAISTOS-Pharma, a
biotechnology company developing next generation immunotherapies
against cancer targeting innate immunity to increase the cure rate
of patients, has completed its €4.5 million seed round to finance
industrialization and advance its lead candidate ONCO-Boost towards
the clinic. Elaia leads a consortium previously initiated by xista
science ventures, the Fondation Fournier-Majoie and Noshaq.
Florian DENIS, Investment Director at
Elaia, stated: “Elaia is very proud to join and strengthen
the syndication. HEPHAISTOS’ core technology based on
immunostimulants has the potential to turn cold tumors into hot
tumors in hard-to-treat cancers. Frédéric CAROFF and his team have
generated impressive preclinical data that will be scaled up
towards additional value-creating milestones.”
“ELAIA has a proven track record in supporting
biotech companies through to the clinic and success, and we are
delighted to have them on board” said Frederic CAROFF, CEO
and co-founder of HEPHAISTOS-Pharma. “With xista science
ventures, Fondation Fournier-Majoie and Noshaq, our consortium of
seed investors brings not only the necessary funds, but also
complementary expertise and a network that will structure the
company. They will play a crucial role in the success of
HEPHAISTOS.”
HEPHAISTOS' innovative approach to innate
modulation has received significant validation and support from
prestigious programs, with a total of €5.8 million awarded to
accelerate the development of ONCO-Boost for the treatment of
hard-to-treat solid tumors, where there is a high unmet medical
need, Bpifrance i-Nov national competition, EIC Accelerator
European competition and RHU clinical grant from France 2030, that
will include a clinical phase 1/2 in collaboration with prestigious
clinical centers.
This seed round will mainly finance the
industrialization of drug production and regulatory toxicity
studies to file for the CTA in Europe. HEPHAISTOS already has a lot
of preclinical data in many cancer indications, but they plan to
generate new additional data in monotherapy against unmet medical
needs and in combination with promising drugs from other
pharmaceutical companies. Finally, it will also help to recruit new
talents and complete the structuring of the board.
***
About HEPHAISTOS-Pharma
HEPHAISTOS-Pharma is a preclinical biotech
company developing the next generation of immunostimulants against
cancer, revolutionizing immune stimulation targeting innate
immunity with a unique technology for intravenous administration,
opening the way to metastatic and hard-to-treat indications.
HEPHAISTOS-Pharma is the laureate of prestigious grants such as
Bpifrance i-Nov and the EIC accelerator in Europe. The company is
also involved in the SyStInn consortium headed by academic partners
that received an additional 9.8M€ grant from the French National
Research Agency RHU program, which will part-fund clinical trials
evaluating ONCO-Boost. HEPHAISTOS-Pharma is one of the few
innovative companies to be selected for its disruptive potential
and supported by the Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster.
HEPHAISTOS-Pharma is headquartered in France,
with a subsidiary in Liège, Belgium. Learn more
www.hephaistos-pharma.com
This project is funded by ANR under ref
ANR-23-RHUS-0003 and received State support through France 2030
program. This project is funded by the European Union - Next
Generation EU through the France Relance Program.This project is
funded by the European Innovation Council as part of the EIC
accelerator program financing the most innovative SMEs.
About ONCO-Boost
ONCO-Boost is the first product from
HEPHAISTOS-Pharma’s platform. It stimulates the patients’ own
immune system, strengthening both innate and adaptive immune
systems, to increase their responses against cold tumors.
ONCO-Boost can work both as a single agent and in combination with
established immunotherapies that do not work against cold tumors,
boosting their efficacy to breakthrough levels. Thanks to its
intravenous administration, ONCO-Boost is the first immunostimulant
to demonstrate simultaneous efficacy against both primary tumors
and metastases.
About ELAIA
Elaia Partners is a European top-tier Venture
Capital firm with a strong technology DNA. We invest in technology
disruptors with global ambition from early stage to growth
development. For the past 20 years, our commitment has been to
deliver high performance with values.We are proud to have been an
active partner in over 100 startups including success stories such
as Criteo (Nasdaq), Orchestra Networks (acquired by Tibco),
Volterra (acquired by F5), Mirakl (valued $3.5B in Series E), Shift
Technology (valued $1B+ in Series D), Mablink Bioscience (acquired
by Eli Lilly), Aqemia and Alice&Bob.Learn more www.Elaia.com •
@Elaia_Partners
About xista sciences ventures
xista science ventures is an Austria-based
venture fund investing in early-stage life science and deeptech
startups across Europe. With a deep understanding of both
scientific and investor perspectives, xista is an active partner to
its portfolio companies, providing support for founders in
realizing deep-tech ideas and scaling enterprises. The fund's
diverse portfolio spans the full breadth of science, in fields such
as biotechnology, medtech, materials science and software. xista is
embedded in the innovation system around the Institute of Science
and Technology Austria (ISTA).
Learn more www.xista.vc.
xista science ventures is supported by InnovFin
Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under
Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for
Strategic Investments ("EFSI") set up under the Investment Plan for
Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and
implementing productive investments in the European Union and to
ensure increased access to financing.
About the Fondation Fournier-MajoieFondation
Fournier-Majoie is a Belgium venture philanthropy organization
dedicated to innovation against cancer. Foundation’s mission is to
identify, fund and support the most promising early-stage oncology
European companies and their Founders as of pre-seed/seed
development stage. Learn more www.fournier-majoie.org
About NoshaqNoshaq is an investment fund and
project developer with a portfolio of more than 450 companies in
different sectors. Noshaq is the reference financial partner for
the creation and development of SMEs in the region of Liège,
Belgium. Noshaq places a significant emphasis on the life science
sector, aiming to actively support promising companies in this
field.Learn more www.noshaq.be