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Secured € 15 million
Citryll announced today the first closing of a targeted € 15 million investment round, funded by ModiQuest B.V., BOM Brabant Ventures, BrightGene, and Curie Capital. The proceeds will be used to progress the pre-clinical and clinical development of Citryll’s tACPA antibodies, inhibitors of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and their formation (NETosis).
tACPA interferes with the formation, function and clearance of NETs, but downstream of the peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) dependant citrullination pathway. It does so by binding to N-terminal citrullinated epitopes in histones that are essential for NET formation.
CEO Helmuth van Es, said:
We believe that drugs that interfere with NETs and their production have the potential to create game changing new treatments to prevent or treat human diseases. tACPA targets autoimmune and other diseases such as lupus, vasculitis, pulmonary fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis and organ damage due to sepsis. Citryll’s approach does not broadly target inflammation or acquired immunity, instead it extinguishes the source of autoantigens and (NET)-derived toxic molecules in the safest way currently possible.
ModiQuest CEO, co-inventor of tACPA, Jos Raats, said:
We welcome the investment by this investor syndicate from the Netherlands and China, which will allow the development of Citryll’s antibody therapeutic for patients with significant medical needs.
BOM Brabant Ventures Investment Manager Sjoerd van Gorp, speaking for the investor syndicate, said:
We are excited to be able to invest in Citryll as the company is an excellent example of a first in class therapeutic innovation that can have a strong impact on patients’ lives. An increasing amount of scientific data shows that NET formation plays a crucial role across various disease types, therefore we look forward to support the further development of tACPA.
Citryll is a private pharmaceutical company based in Oss, the Netherlands that is dedicated to the development and commercialization of therapeutics that target NETosis and NETs. Citryll was founded by ModiQuest B.V., originator of the tACPA patents, Helmuth van Es, CEO Citryll, and Renato Chirivi, CSO Citryll and co-inventor of tACPA.
ModiQuest B.V. was founded by Jos Raats, Ger Pruijn, and Walther van Venrooij in 2004, and discovers and develops innovative therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies in cancer and autoimmune diseases. Jos Raats is co-inventor of the highly sensitive, gold standard, early diagnostic test for RA (anti-CCP test), the Plexin patents and the tACPA patents, and an experienced antibody scientist and entrepreneur.
Stock Photos from Hajrudin Hodzic/Shutterstock
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