Paris, France – 28 September, 2016 - Seventure Partners, one of Europe’s leaders in financing innovation, today announces its corporate update for May to September 2016.
A number of positive milestones for Seventure’s portfolio, both financial and in partnering collaborations, has meant a strong year for Seventure Partners, giving the Company a strong position going into 2017.
Seventure Partners’ News
Rounding off its microbiome portfolio, Seventure Partners’ Health for Life Capital invested $8m as part of a $50m financing of U.S. microbiome company Vedanta Biosciences in June. The funding will enable Vedanta Biosciences to advance several clinical studies in infections and autoimmune diseases, as well as to scale up its technology. The Company is pioneering the development of new therapeutics classes designed to modulate the pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system, being the first to rationally design a drug candidate based on consortia of human commensal bacteria.
Portfolio company news
Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA), an international molecular nuclear medicine specialist, reported sales growth of 24.4% Q2 2016. It was also granted priority review of Luthathera, a Lu-177 labeled somastatin analogue peptide being developed for the treatment of gastro enteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. The Company announced that the first patient had been treated with Luthathera under its U.S. Expanded Access program. In June, the Company’s NETSPOT Kit for Neuroendocrine Tumor Detection, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). AAA also expanded its pipeline with NeoBOMB1, a novel GRPR antagonist in development for gastrointestinal stromal tumours, prostate and breast cancer.
In June, Argenx, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company creating and developing differentiated therapeutic antibodies to treat cancer and severe autoimmune diseases, announced a private placement of new shares for a total of €30M. The Company also announced the initial results from a Phase I dosing study in healthy volunteers of ARGX-113, a novel approach to manage exacerbations of severe IgG-mediated autoimmune diseases, which showed a reduction of IgG levels of up to 85% and a favorable safety and tolerability profile.
Biophytis, developer of drug candidates to treat ageing diseases, announced that they had received an innovation loan of €1.1M to finance a pharmacokinetics and safety study of Sarconeos (SARA-PK – for sarcophenic obesity) in elderly volunteers aged over 65. Enrollment started in August.
Leaders in therapeutic medical nutrition Cambrooke Therapeutics announced that data published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, on their product Glytactin™, showed it was a safe and acceptable option for the nutritional management of phenylketonuria and may provide lifelong adherence to the low-Phe diet required for the management of the condition.
Medical device company Implanet, specializing in vertebral and knee surgery implants, announced record revenue of €2.1 million with spine sales growing by 68% in Q2 2016.
Mainstay Medical, the medical device company focused on bringing to market ReActiv8, an implantable neurostimulation system to treat chronic lower back pain, raised €30M to support European commercialization, following receipt of CE mark, and U.S. pre-market approval.
In May, Mauna Kea Technologies announced that it received 510k clearance from the FDA for its confocal microscopes, used in urology and minimally invasive surgical applications with the Cellizio® platform, the near-infrared multidisciplinary confocal laser endomicroscopy platform. In July, the company completed a €4.4M equity financing that will support Mauna Kea’s growth strategy.
MDxHealth, a multinational healthcare company that provides actionable molecular diagnostic information to personalize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, secured reimbursement coverage of its SelectMDx™ for Prostate Cancer test with two U.S. providers as well as entering into a collaboration agreement with Cerba Healthcare Belgium to offer the test to urology practitioners in France, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Private Dutch company Mint Solutions which is developing and marketing the revolutionary medical safety system MedEye, announced in August that it raised €5M in a Series B equity funding round led by Brabant Development Agency, Life Science Partners and Seventure Partners. NSA Ventures and a number of private Icelandic investors, also participated in the financing, which will support the rollout of MedEye, which aims to stop and prevent medication errors and improve efficiency in hospitals and care solutions.
Nanobiotix, a late clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering novel approaches for the local treatment of cancer, announced in May that it has established proof-of-concept with its lead product NBTXR3 for its new immune-oncology program, showing the potential to turn the tumor itself into a vaccine. In May, the Company received a $1M milestone payment from its Taiwan-based partner PharmaEngine, triggered by the treatment of the first patient in Nanobiotix’s Soft Tissue Sarcoma pivotal study. Nanobiotix also announced positive results from a Phase I/II clinical study of NBTXR3 for the treatment of locally advanced cancers of the oral cavity, tongue or oropharynx in frail and elderly patients. The trial showed that NBTXR3 had an excellent safety profile and showed promising signs of tumor volume response in those who could not receive standard of care radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Pixium Vision, developer of innovative vision systems that allow patients who have lost their sight to lead more independent lives, announced in May that it received approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK to initiate a clinical trial for patients who have lost their sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, with the IRIS®II bionic vision system, an intelligent retinal implant system. In July, the system received a CE mark.
TxCell, developer of innovative, personalized cellular immunotherapies using regulatory T cells to treat severe chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, announced in May that it received authorization from European regulatory authorities to restart its Phase IIb, placebo-controlled trial of Ovasave® in patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease refractory to existing treatments. Topline data is expected within 18-21 months of trial resumption. Additional news includes a collaboration with the Lübeck Institute of Experimental Dermatology to develop CAR-Tregs in bullous pemphigoid, a rare and potentially fatal autoimmune disease characterized by tense inflammatory skin blisters and in some patients, erosion of mucous membranes; and the financing of up to €20M that will finance non-clinical research activities over the next year.
Events
In May, Denise Kelly, PhD, made a keynote speech on commercialization opportunities for microbiome at the Food-Microbiome Interaction: Implications for Health and Disease, an event presented by the Quadram Institute and the New York Academy of Sciences.
Isabelle de Cremoux, President and Managing Partner of Seventure Partners, took part in a fireside chat at Labiotech Refresh in May, talking about her passion for the microbiome and sharing insights into microbiome market predictions. Earlier this month, Isabelle de Cremoux attended Gut Microbiota and Probiotics throughout the Lifespan: Metabolic and Brain Function in Boston.
Reflecting its leadership position and to support its strong network, Seventure Partners will be attending the following events over the rest of the year:
• 4th Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum, 3-4 October, San Diego
• 6th International Human Microbiome Congress, 9-11 October, Houston
• 5th Beneficial Microbes Conference, 10-12 October, Amsterdam
• 4th World Congress on Targeting Microbiota, 17-19 October, Paris
• Microbiome Summit Europe 2016, 3-4 November, London
• Bio-Europe 2016, 7-9 November, Cologne*
• 2nd Annual European Microbiome Congress, 30 November – 1 December, London
*At Bio-Europe, on 7 November, Seventure is sponsoring and moderating the panel ‘Your Microbiome and Lifelong Health’.
Isabelle de Cremoux, said: “The second and thirds quarters of 2016 have been shown the exceptional quality of the companies we invest in. We are proud of the accomplishments of the Company and our portfolio and are looking forward to expanding our success in Q4 and into 2017.”
- ENDS -
Notes To Editors
About Seventure Partners
With over €600m in assets under management as of the end of 2015, Seventure Partners is a leading venture capital firm in Europe. Since 1997, Seventure Partners has invested in innovative businesses with high growth potential in digital technologies, in France and Germany, and in the life sciences field across Europe and North America.
In life sciences, the four areas of focus include biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, connected health and medtech, industrial biotechnology, and last but not least: the MICROBIOME, nutrition, foodtech and personalized medicine. Investments can range between €500k and €10m per round, or up to €20m per company, from early to late stage. In December 2013, Seventure Partners successfully launched Health for Life Capital™ which has attracted strategic investments from prestigious organizations including Danone, Tereos, Tornier, Lesaffre, Bel and Novartis as well as entrepreneurs and financial institutions.
Seventure is a subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management. Natixis is the corporate investment management and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest French bank.
