NousCom Amasses €42M in Series B Funding Round

center;">NousCom Amasses €42M in Series B Funding Round

An oncology company developing neoantigen based cancer vaccines, NousCom, has now announced the completion of its €42m Series B financing round.

The round was led by Abingworth, fellow new investor 5 AM Ventures also participated, as did existing investors LSP and Versant Ventures.

“We are excited to work with the team at NousCom to develop its platform which has already demonstrated very promising immunological and efficacy results in preclinical studies. Because of its ability to induce potent CD8 T cell responses, in addition to CD4, and deliver a large amount of immunogenic information, we believe it holds strong promise in the clinic,” Genghis Lloyd-Harris, M.D., Ph.D., a partner of Abingworth, said in a statement.

The Swiss biotech will use the proceeds to further advance its lead program NOUS-209, an off-the-shelf cancer vaccine, into Phase I/II clinical studies in 2018. The Company is planning to develop NOUS-209 as a prophylactic vaccine to prevent the occurrence of cancer in Lynch Syndrome Carriers (a genetically defined patient population with higher risk of developing colorectal, endometrial, and gastric cancers), and as a therapeutic vaccine for cancers characterized by Microsatellite Instability (tumors containing abnormalities affecting DNA repair). NOUS-209 has the potential to be the first neoantigen off-the-shelf cancer vaccine tested in the clinic.

The Company will also further the development of NOUS-100-PV, a personalized neoantigen based vaccine, which is expected to enter clinical studies in the second half of 2018. Newsom’s third program is an oncolytic virus specifically targeted to tumor cells. This program, which is based on a second platform Endovax, is in the discovery phase.

Dr. Alfredo Nicosia, CEO of NousCom, said “This financing, by experienced life sciences investors, represents an important validation of our platform and development strategy. We are delighted to welcome new investors Abingworth and 5 AM and would like to thank our existing investors, LSP and Versant Venture. This investment will enable us to leverage our best in class Exovax platform to accelerate clinical development of our programs.”