Source: pharmalive.com/News
Author: press release

BT Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative immunotherapies to prevent cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), announces today that it has raised EUR 13.1 million in additional funding and changed its name to Genticel. AGF Private Equity led the round, which brought in three new investors, IRDI (Institut Régional de Développement Industriel), Amundi Private Equity Funds and InnoBio fund, managed by CDC Entreprises, within FSI France Investment program. Previous investors, including Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP), also took part.

To best leverage its unique and broadly applicable therapeutic vaccine platform, Adenylate Cyclase (CyaA), Genticel will focus its efforts on the prevention of cervical cancer in HPV infected women. A phase I clinical trial of Genticel’s lead therapeutic HPV vaccine, ProCervix, is scheduled for the second quarter of 2010. This bivalent product, which carries antigens originating from both HPV16 and HPV18, should offer a curative vaccine solution that will complement current prophylactic vaccines.

“This level of support from investors, particularly in the current economic environment, is extremely encouraging and confirms the potential of our drug candidates and our business plan,” said Dr Benedikt Timmerman, CEO at Genticel. “The new funding will not only enable us to conduct our ‘first-in-man’ clinical trial with the CyaA technology but also allow the company to prepare for phase II in the same indication and prepare pipeline products up to the development stage.”

Dr Alain Munoz, MD, representative of AGF Private Equity, who has joined the Supervisory Board of Genticel, stated: “I am eager to contribute to this exciting company which develops a therapeutic solution for over 90 million women worldwide who are no longer eligible for prophylactic HPV vaccines because they are already infected by either of these two most frequent oncogenic papillomaviruses.”

Thierry Hercend, MD, PhD, President of the Supervisory Board added: “We are satisfied with the way BT Pharma, initially a research entity, is making the transition to a clinical development company, now named Genticel. Its antigen delivery technology has a broad medical potential which should materialize into a clinical success in the selected HPV area, where vaccines constitute a transforming solution towards the eradication of life threatening cancers.”

M. Laurent Arthaud, General Manager of the InnoBio fund, managed by CDC Entreprises commented: “This second investment by InnoBio illustrates the objectives that were set by the FSI for the biotechnology sector: InnoBio allows selected innovative French companies, such as Genticel, to accelerate the development of their products and potentially benefit from business interests from our industrial investors, which count among the world’s largest pharma companies.”