- Financing supports execution of early-stage clinical trials for Anocca’s lead programme VIDAR-1, powered by the Company’s leading-edge R&D platform, to target pancreatic cancer
- VIDAR-1 is the first non-viral gene-edited TCR-T cell therapy in Europe with recruitment open
SÖDERTÄLJE, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Anocca AB (‘Anocca’ or the ‘Company’), a leading clinical-stage T-cell immunotherapy company, has successfully raised SEK ~440 million (USD ~46 million) in financing. The additional capital will be used to drive the continued progress of VIDAR-1, Anocca’s gene-edited TCR-T cell therapies targeting mutant KRAS in pancreatic cancer, through early-stage clinical development, as well as progress Anocca’s preclinical pipeline. The financing was led by Mellby Gård with strong support from AMF, Ramsbury and existing shareholders, alongside new investors.
Recruitment is now open for Phase I of the multi-centre trial of VIDAR-1, which is being conducted at leading university hospitals across Sweden, Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands.
Reagan Jarvis, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Anocca, said: “We thank our investors for their strong and continued support as we advance our first TCR-T cell therapy products into the clinic. The team has built a unique discovery platform and in-house manufacturing capability, and we are now excited to see the first products reaching patients with high unmet need.”
Johan Andersson, Chairman of Mellby Gård, commented: “We have been invested in Anocca throughout its preclinical development and are pleased to see the Company transition into a clinical stage biotech. We look forward to seeing Anocca help patients that have limited treatment options today with their innovative approach to T-cell therapies.”
SEB Corporate Finance acted as financial advisor to Anocca on the finalisation of the transaction, and Mannheimer Swartling and HWF Advokater have acted as legal advisors.
ENDS
About Anocca
Anocca is a fully integrated clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops libraries of T-cell receptor-engineered T cell (TCR-T) therapies to redefine the treatment of solid tumours and other difficult to treat diseases, including infectious and autoimmune diseases. The company has built a unique discovery engine that uses programmable human cells to recreate and manipulate T cell immunity. These proprietary technologies enable scaling of TCR-T cell therapy development, allowing the systematic generation of libraries of products that represent personalised treatments for the broad patient populations. Anocca currently has the broadest pipeline of TCR-T oncology cell therapy treatments.
Anocca operates an advanced research and development infrastructure, underpinned by a custom software ecosystem, AnoccaOS, and an in-house cGMP manufacturing and process development facility. Anocca’s TCR-T cell therapies are novel discoveries from its platform and manufactured using non-viral gene editing technology at Anocca’s facilities in Södertälje, Sweden. 130+ staff from 40+ nations work at Anocca.
About the VIDAR-1 clinical programme
VIDAR-1 is designed as a multi-product umbrella trial targeting oncogenic driver mutations in KRAS within pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). It will investigate up to 20 patients per product in a set of phase I/II studies. Phase I is currently conducted at eight sites in four countries with additional countries and sites in phase II. Patients will be eligible to enrol if they have an HLA, and KRAS mutation, matching an available product.
More information about the clinical trial can be found at the EU’s clinical trials website.
About KRAS and PDAC
Mutant KRAS is implicated in pancreatic, lung and colorectal cancers. G12V and G12D mutations in KRAS affect around 90% of pancreatic cancer patients. The five-year survival rate of patients with PDAC is less than 10% (1). Despite recent advances there are no definitive treatments for advanced patients at present (2).
References
1. Rawla et al (2019). Epidemiology of Pancreatic Cancer: Global Trends, Etiology and Risk Factors. World J Oncol. 10(1):10–27. doi: 10.14740/wjon1166
2. Hu & O’Reilly (2023). Therapeutic developments in pancreatic cancer. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 21, 7–24. doi: 10.1038/s41575-023-00840-w
Contacts
Media Inquiries
Anocca AB
https://www.anocca.com/
Zach Chia
VP Strategy & Business Development
Media kit is available here
FTI Consulting (For Anocca AB)
Michael Trace / Tim Stamper
anocca@fticonsulting.com
