BT Pharma raises €13.1M and changes name to Genticel

Funding

BT Pharma, a specialist in immunotherapies to prevent cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), said it raised €13.1 million in additional funding and is changing its name to Genticel. AGF Private Equity led the round, which brought in three new investors, IRDI (Institut Régional de Développement Industriel), Amundi Private Equity Funds and InnoBio fund, managed by CDC Entreprises, within Fonds Strategique d’Investissement, (FIS) France’s economic stimulus investment programme. Previous investors, including Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP), also took part.

Genticel now intends to focus its efforts on the prevention of cervical cancer in women infected with HPV. A Phase I clinical trial of the lead vaccine, ProCervix, is due to start in the second quarter of 2010. This carries antigens originating from both HPV16 and HPV18 strains, and Genticel says it should clear the virus in women already infected with the infection, complementing current prophylactic vaccines, which block de novo infection.

“This level of support from investors, particularly in the current economic environment, is extremely encouraging and confirms the potential of our drug candidates and our business plan,” said Benedikt Timmerman, CEO at Genticel. “The new funding will not only enable us to conduct our first-in-man clinical trial [...] but also allow the company to prepare for Phase II in the same indication and prepare pipeline products up to [clinical] development.”

Alain Munoz of AGF Private Equity, who has joined the Supervisory Board of Genticel, said, “I am eager to contribute to this exciting company which develops a therapeutic solution for over 90 million women worldwide who are no longer eligible for prophylactic HPV vaccines because they are already infected by either of these two most frequent oncogenic papillomaviruses.”

Laurent Arthaud, General Manager of the InnoBio fund, managed by CDC Entreprises, said, “This second investment by InnoBio illustrates the objectives that were set by the FSI for the biotechnology sector: InnoBio allows selected innovative French companies, such as Genticel, to accelerate the development of their products and potentially benefit from business interests from our industrial investors, which count among the world's largest pharma companies.”

Approximately 300 million women are carriers of HPV world-wide at any given time. Of these, about 93 million are infected with HPV16 and/or HPV18 strains of the virus and of this population approximately 350,000 patients are diagnosed each year with cervical cancer.

Genticel, a spin-out of the Institut Pasteur, is based in Labège, on the outskirts of Toulouse, France. The company, which employs 21 people, focuses exclusively on the development of immunotherapeutic products aimed at preventing cancers caused by HPV.