Amsterdam-based Scenic Biotech, a developer of genomics and immunotherapy technologies created to unlock genetic suppressors, announced on Thursday that it has raised €28M in its Series A round of funding.
The round was co-led by European investors, Eir Ventures, a Nordic Life Science venture fund, Switzerland-based BioMedPartners and Luxemburg-based Vesalius Biocapital. Existing Dutch and UK investors Inkef Capital, BioGeneration Ventures and Oxford Science Enterprises also participated along with Scenic Biotech founders and management.
With this deal, Stephan Christgau, General Partner Eir Ventures, Michael Wacker, General Partner BioMedPartners, and Stephane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital will join Scenic’s board.
Speaking on behalf of the investors, Stephan Christgau says, “Scenic Biotech is a pioneer in the field of genetic modifiers. We are impressed by the power of its Cell-Seq platform and how it’s fueling a portfolio of in-house and partnered programmes across multiple therapeutic areas. This financing will enable Scenic to continue to develop its platform and move its lead programme into human clinical trials while bringing its rare disease programmes to key-value infection points.”
Capital utilisation
Scenic Biotech says that the funds will help accelerate its transition into a development stage company, advancing its in-house pipeline and the creation of new programmes based on its Cell-Seq genetic modifier target discovery platform, including new industry collaborations.
The company will now advance its lead QPCTL small molecule immuno-oncology programme into the clinic. In addition, by leveraging its Cel-Seq discovery platform, Scenic has generated a pipeline of disease-modifying therapeutics to treat devastating inherited rare diseases.
Three of these programmes, which are based on druggable genetic modifiers, are being progressed towards IND enabling studies.
- The first programme is centred on a small molecule to treat Niemann Pick Type C (NP-C), a rare lipid storage disorder that affects lipid metabolism, or the way fats, lipids, and cholesterol are transported in human cells
- The second programme is for Barth syndrome, an inherited mitochondrial disorder caused by mutations in the gene encoding Tafazzin. Barth syndrome is characterised by defects in cardiolipin, a critical component of the inner mitochondrial membrane
- And the third programme is to treat a severe heritable metabolic syndrome
Alongside its in-house pipeline, Scenic has a multi-year, multi-indication strategic collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to discover, develop and commercialise novel therapeutics that target genetic modifiers. The collaboration has been expanded twice and now includes six scientific areas.
Scenic anticipates more than doubling its team in the coming 18 months, including building its clinical capabilities. To accommodate the expansion, Scenic will be expanding its facilities within the flourishing life sciences cluster at the Science Park in the East of Amsterdam.
“Specialising in evolution inspired medicine for rare diseases”
Scenic Biotech was founded in 2017 by Sebastian Nijman and Thijn Brummelkamp as a spin-out of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Oxford University. The company is focused on identifying genetic modifiers, a new class of disease targets, for drug intervention. Also known as disease suppressors, genetic modifiers are genes that act to suppress or completely block the effect of a disease-causing mutated gene.
Scenic is leveraging its Cell-Seq discovery platform to identify genetic modifiers across multiple therapeutic areas. It is building a pipeline of disease-modifying therapeutics to treat devastating diseases, including inherited rare diseases and cancer.
About the investors
Eir Ventures is a life science focused venture fund that claims to have a strong foundation in the Nordic Biotech ecosystem. It invests in companies at early as well as mature stages. The fund started its investment activities in 2020 and seeks investment opportunities addressing unmet medical needs for new therapies, medical technology and digital health. The firm is backed by a strong investor syndicate including Saminvest, the European Investment Fund (EIF), Vækstfonden, Novo Holdings, private investors as well as Nordic universities.
Switzerland-based BioMedPartners is an independent European venture capital firm that acts as lead or co-lead investor providing private equity to early to mid-stage life sciences companies. Since 2002, BioMedPartners has invested in several highly innovative companies, of which twenty-two have already either successfully been acquired by leading biopharma companies or have completed an IPO. The firm has more than CHF 350M in capital under management.
In February, 2018, the company announced the closing of BioMedInvest III, their third equity venture capital fund of CHF 100M. In this third fund, the firm is focusing on the build-up of companies with highly innovative early-stage assets and technology platforms.
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