Gilead Backed Vaccine Biotech Hookipa Closes Round C with $60M
Austrian Biotech, Hookipa, develops a new class of innovative prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines based on its proprietary Vaxwave technology. Another one of its platforms, TheraT fights cancer using an attenuated replicating virus, which can make even “cold tumors hot”.
Gilead has joined a growing list of powerful investors that want to help Hookipa Biotech develop its vaccine technology by participating in its Series C fundraising. The big biotech participated in a $60 million (€50 million) series C intended to equip Hookipa to advance its cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine and cancer candidate through early clinical testing.
The new round was led by an unnamed blue chip U.S. public investment fund, and was joined by Gilead as a strategic investor. Other new investors include HBM Partners, Hillhouse Capital, and Sirona Capital. Hookipa already had several existing investors on board including Boehringer Ingelheim’s venture arm and Takeda Ventures, which participated in the round.
HB-101, a CMV vaccine based on Vaxware, came through a phase 1 trial earlier this year, setting Hookipa up to return to investors in search of money to support a phase 2 trial in solid organ transplant patients.
The $60 million investment gives Hookipa the money to take HB-101 into phase 2
and have enough left over to fund a phase 1 trial of lead TheraT-based candidate HB-201 in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.Joern Aldag, Chief Executive Officer of Hookipa said: “Our vision is of a world in which the immune system actively controls infectious diseases and cancer, using monotherapy or combinations of medications. We welcome the funding and support from this group of leading current and new investors, who have recognized the potential, versatility, and uniqueness of our novel viral vector platform in this context. This financing allows us to progress two lead development programs through the major inflection points of clinical proof of concept, and to expand our clinical work to additional virology and oncology indications.”
