Belgian startup Camel-IDS, a VUB spin-off company that was established in 2014, has raised €37 million for developing cancer-targeted radio-pharmaceuticals. The funding was carried out in a Series A investment round that was led by V-Bio Ventures (Belgium) and Gimv (Belgium) and assisted by the co-lead investors HealthCap (Sweden), Novo Seeds (Denmark), Pontifax (Israel) and BioMedPartners (Switzerland). The event also witnessed participation from existing investors.
Notably, Christina Takke from V-Bio, Karl Naegler from Gimv, Mårten Steen from HealthCap, Morten Graugaard Døssing from Novo Seeds and Ohad Hammer from Pontifax will join the board of directors for the due process of financing the start-up’s cancer research initiatives.
Technology to treat brain lesions
Emphasising on bringing exceptional knowledge to the table, Tony Lahoutte, CSO and co-founder of Camel-IDS, iterates the difficulty in treatment of the breast cancer patients that can be fought with advanced technologies that require strong investments.
The €37 million funding will cater to Camel-IDS’s phase run of Ib/II trial with its lead program CAM-H2 targeting HER2-positive brain metastatic breast cancer. Focused on targeted treatments, CAM-H2 aims to effectively remove the brain lesions while sparing healthy tissue. The program is established on a unique technology platform that leverages the favourable tissue distribution of camelid-derived single domain antibodies linked to radionuclides. Further, the start-up’s technology platform makes room for a theranostic approach, where patients can be selected using a low dose/imaging version of the product, followed by a high therapeutic dose for treatment.
Ruth Devenyns, CEO of Camel-IDS, is quite optimistic about the funding. With ‘Strike the cancer, not the patient’ as its motto, the startup is set to embark on a journey to develop multi-product opportunities that can also prove helpful for products in the pipeline.
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