ImmBio
raises €1million to finance respiratory disease vaccine development
Tuesday
10 June 2003, Cambridge
healthcare company, ImmunoBiology Limited (“ImmBio”) has successfully
completed a €1million equity offering to raise funds for its respiratory
vaccine programme. The current round was lead by Generics Asset Management
Limited and the consortium included British Smaller Technology Companies
VCT2, advised by Yorkshire Fund Managers Limited and Oxford Technology 3
VCT, advised by Seed Capital Limited.
The
company is also looking to broaden its investor base by the year end, with
a view to raising further funds in 2004 to finance the clinical
development of the respiratory disease vaccine candidates being identified
in the current pre-clinical programme.
ImmBio
was formed to exploit advances in the emerging science of immunobiology
that have clarified the mechanisms by which the immune system recognises
and responds to infectious disease pathogens.
The company is applying its HspC™ technology platform to identify
vaccine candidates for clinical development as anti-infective products for
the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. ImmBio has a
bacterial vaccine programme underway and is beginning a viral vaccine
programme, initially focussing on respiratory diseases.
The
initial target for the company’s bacterial programme is tuberculosis, an
increasingly serious healthcare issue, and the programme has already
identified candidate HspC™ vaccines for both the prevention and the
treatment of TB. The live BCG vaccine currently used for prophylaxis shows
little protection against pulmonary TB, the major form of the disease.
There are no therapeutic vaccines available and the rise in the incidence
of multi-drug resistant TB (especially in HIV patients), as well as safety
concerns recently raised about therapeutic DNA vaccination, makes the need
for an effective therapeutic TB
vaccine a global health priority. The company is also working on potential
TB booster vaccine candidates for use in BCG vaccines, to combat the
problem of short-lived immunity.
ImmBio’s
Managing Director, Camilo Colaco said: “The funds raised will enable us
to complete our current TB vaccine candidate identification programme and
begin identification of HspC™ vaccine candidates for both annual and
pandemic influenza vaccines. Whilst fundraising was difficult in the
current climate, the recent Severe Respiratory Distress Syndrome (SARS)
epidemic has reminded investors of both the global healthcare need and
commercial relevance of infectious disease vaccines”.
Generics
Asset Management’s Managing Director, Chris Coggill, said: “Generics
Asset Management is delighted to have led this funding round for ImmBio.
Its business plan and the underlying science are rigorous and there is no
doubting that ImmBio is trying to meet a significant need in the
healthcare industry globally.”
The
company has also appointed Dr Chris Bailey as Development Director. Dr
Bailey was previously with Celltech and Medeva, where he was responsible
for taking their Hepatitis B vaccine from laboratory, right through to
European approval. This was the first recombinant vaccine product,
manufactured in mammalian cells to be approved by the European Medicines
Evaluation Agency (EMEA).
Contacts:
ImmunoBiology
Limited:
Dr
Camilo Colaco, tel 01223 496116, camilo.colaco@immunobiology.co.uk
Generics
Group:
Ruth
Shaw, tel 01223 875200, ruth.shaw@genericsgroup.com
