Elicera Therapeutics: €2.5m
Case
6/2/22
GAEU Consulting secures the prestigious EIC Accelerator funding for Elicera Therapeutics, a clinical stage cell and gene therapy company that develops next generation immuno-oncology treatments based on enhanced oncolytic viruses and CAR T-cells. The 2.5 MEUR grant will be used to finance a clinical phase I/II-trial with Elicera’s CAR T-cell therapy, ELC-301.
Tomasz Wąsik, MBA comments: “we are extremely happy to add Elicera Therapeutics to our portfolio of successful EIC Accelerator life science projects. The project has all it takes to get the funding – a breakthrough deep tech innovation, a dedicated team and a clear project plan. It was a real pleasure guiding Elicera team all the way to this success.”
Jamal El-Mosleh, CEO, Elicera Therapeutics AB comments: “The support we have received from GAEU has been very professional and dedicated in addition to it being a great pleasure on a personal level as well to collaborate with the entire GAEU-team on securing this very important EIC grant for Elicera.”
About the iTANK platform
The iTANK- (immunoTherapies Activated with NAP for efficient Killing) technology platform has been developed for arming and enhancing CAR T-cells in order to meet two of the major challenges CAR T-cell therapies face in the treatment of solid tumors: tumor antigen heterogeneity and a hostile tumor microenvironment. The technology is used to incorporate a transgene into CAR T-cells encoding a neutrophil activating protein (NAP) from the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. NAP secreted from the CAR(NAP) T-cells has been shown to be able to enhance the function of CAR T-cells and importantly activating a parallel immune response against the cancer via CD8+ killer T-cells. This is expected to lead to a broad attack against most antigen targets on cancer cells. The iTANK-platform is used to enhance the company's own CAR T-cells but can also be universally applied to other CAR T-cell therapies under development. Proof-of-concept data was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering in April 2022. The publication, titled “CAR T cells expressing a bacterial virulence factor trigger potent bystander antitumour responses in solid cancers” (DOI number: 10.1038/s41551-022-00875-5) can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-022-00875-5. More information about iTANK-platform is available here: https://www.elicera.com/technology
About Elicera Therapeutics AB
Elicera Therapeutics AB is a clinical stage cell and gene therapy company that develops next generation immuno-oncology treatments based on enhanced oncolytic viruses and CAR T-cells. The work is based on high-profile long-standing research conducted by Professor Magnus Essand's research group at Uppsala University and has resulted in the development of four drug candidates, including two CAR T-cells and two oncolytic viruses. In addition, Elicera has developed a technology platform called iTANK that can be used to optimize all CAR T-cells in development and activate killer T-cells against cancer. The company’s share (ELIC) is traded on Nasdaq First North Growth Market. G&W Fondkommission has been appointed the Company's Certified Adviser. E-mail: ca@gwkapital.se, tel: +468-503 000 50. For more information, please visit www.elicera.com