Funding
Vaccines specialist Immune Targeting Systems Ltd (ITS) has secured a £8.65 million extension to its first funding round, bring the total for the round to £13.15 million. The existing investors HealthCap of Sweden; London Technology Fund, UK; Novartis Venture Fund, Basel; and Truffle Capital, France are all participating. The round is open until mid-2010 for new potential investors to invest.
The money will be used fund ITS’s lead product FP-01 through to Phase II proof of concept studies. This vaccine is designed to be effective against seasonal and pandemic strains of flu.
ITS’s technology platform uses a proprietary algorithm for selecting targets on flu and other mutating viruses that remain unchanged over time. It then synthesises antigens to these epitope targets, and combines several antigens in each vaccine.
The second arm of the company’s technology, called DepoVaccines, delivers the vaccine as nanoparticles, which are small enough to enter dendritic cells, sparking an immune response.
With this funding Phase I of the flu vaccine can now go ahead. Vaccines against Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, HIV, and HPV await development funding or partners. The vaccine platform is applicable to other infectious diseases and cancers.
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