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CimCure, a biotech spin-off of
Amsterdam UMC, focusing on the development of a novel vaccine-based cancer
immunotherapy through its Immune-Boost (iBoost) technology, today announced
that it has raised little over €
5 million in a financing Seed Round led by Dutch VC Positron Ventures. The round was supported by several investors with deep
industry knowledge, including the investment vehicle of Tom Würdinger,
professor at Amsterdam UMC. With the proceeds of this Seed Round CimCure
will further advance the vaccine up until phase 1-2 clinical studies in
humans. Dutch vaccine CDMO Intravacc will be
CimCure’s partner for the development and production of the lead compound.
The vaccine-based immunotherapy developed by the team of
Prof. Dr Griffioen at the Amsterdam UMC and licensed to CimCure, has shown
high effectiveness and safety, both in murine animal models and in an
efficacy study in client-owned dogs with spontaneous bladder cancer. Late
May, some of the research results which underlie CimCure’s innovation were
published in Nature Communications (Van
Beijnum et al, 2022).
CimCure was founded in 2016 as a spin-off of Amsterdam UMC
supported by Amsterdam UMC’s TTO Innovation Exchange Amsterdam and is led by Prof. dr. Arjan
Griffioen, CSO, and Diederik Engbersen, CEO. Both have extensive experience
in the biotech industry and started CimCure to commercialise a smart,
effective and safe treatment strategy against all types of solid tumors at
all stages, and can be combined with conventional and state-of-the-art
anti-cancer strategies.
Joseph Peeraer, founding partner of Positron said:
“We feel privileged to be able to invest in this promising
iBoost technology and vaccine-based cancer immunotherapy, which might
become a real game changer in the fight against cancer. This investment in
CimCure exemplifies our thesis to invest at an early stage in outstanding
scientists who would like to bring a potentially groundbreaking and
impactful innovation to market. Professor Griffioen’s invention may
lead to a much less demanding, cheaper and more effective cancer
treatment.”
Diederik Engbersen, CimCure’s CEO, said:
“We are pleased with this funding round led by Positron and
supported by Tom Würdinger. Our first promising findings with murine animal
models and client-owned dogs have recently been published in Nature
Communications, bolstering our commitment to advance our technology and
therapy towards clinical trials and cancer patients globally over the
coming years.”
About CimCure’s vaccine-based immunotherapy
CimCure develops cancer vaccines through its proprietary
Immune-Boost (iBoost) technology of targeted conjugate vaccines. The
company has identified specific targets in the tumor vasculature.
Eradication of tumor blood vessels and inhibition of their growth will lead
to inhibition of cancer growth. This is an attractive approach for
treatment of cancer. However, past and current angiostatic drugs are
known for rapid induction of drug resistance and loss of effectiveness, due
to intervention in tumor-produced growth factors or their receptors.
CimCure’s approach directly targets the tumor blood vessels, which efficiently
attenuates tumor growth directly and does not induce resistance. An
additional advantage of targeting blood vessels is that the barrier
function of the tumor vasculature for leukocytes can be overcome (Huinen et al, Nature
Reviews Clinical Oncology, 2021).
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