NeoPhore Limited, a small molecule neoantigen immuno-oncology company, today announces a further extension of £9.6m (approx. USD $12.2m) to its Series B financing round. With participation from its existing syndicate, CPF managed by Sixth Element Capital, Claris Ventures, Astellas Venture Management, 3B Future Health Fund, 2investAG, and the addition of three new investors – NEVA SGR (the venture capital arm of Intesa Sanpaolo banking group), LIFTT (venture capital focused on deep-tech and chaired by Stefano Buono) and Simon Fiduciaria (the fiduciary company of Ersel Group). This extension brings the total raised in Series B financing to £31.1m (approx. USD $39.5m).
NeoPhore is building a pipeline of small molecule drugs targeting novel proteins across the DNA mismatch repair (‘MMR’) pathway to generate next-generation immuno-oncology therapeutics to improve clinical outcomes for cancer patients. NeoPhore’s first-in-class MMR inhibitors induce neoantigen expression and increase immunogenicity in solid tumours that become exquisitely sensitive to immunotherapy.
2023 was a great year of progress for NeoPhore. At AACR-NCI-EORTC in Boston in October, the first disclosure of lead compound NP1867 was presented. This demonstrated that NP1867 functionally inhibits MMR in cells and elicits COSMIC mutational signatures consistent with MMR-deficient patient samples.
The additional Series B funding will be used to progress NeoPhore’s lead oral program, through early pre-clinical development.
Dr Matthew Baker, Chief Executive Officer of NeoPhore, said: “NeoPhore has made excellent progress throughout 2023. With the support of our committed and new investors, along with our research collaborations with academic institutions that are in place, we remain on track to deliver a candidate drug for our lead PMS2 program by early 2025.”
Dr Robert James, Chairman of NeoPhore, said: “Over the past years NeoPhore has made tremendous strides in showing that it is possible to target the MMR pathway with small molecule inhibitors. The recent data the Company has generated and presented at an international conference leads us to believe that NeoPhore’s approach may be profoundly important. We are pleased to welcome three new Italian-based investors to our syndicate as well as further funding from existing investors. Their commitment reflects the potential value of NeoPhore’s approach that exploits the dynamics of cancer neoantigen evolution, through the discovery and design of effective, well-tolerated medicines that will become a key part of the next-generation of cancer immunotherapies. We are very excited about the next stage in the life of the Company.”
Francesca Mongardi, Project Manager of LIFTT, said: “We are thrilled to be able to support, through our investment in Neophore, the development of next-generation immuno-oncology therapies that aim to increase the therapeutic opportunities for cancer patients. We believe the company’s work is perfectly in line with LIFTT’s mission to support cutting-edge projects, aimed in this case at redefining therapeutic standards.”