PDC*line Pharma, a Liege, Belgium- and Grenoble, France-based clinical stage biotech company developing a new class of potent and scalable active off-the-shelf cancer vaccine, completed a €17.5M Series B2 round of financing.
This round was led by Korea Investment Partners with participation from Alpha Holdings, Brain Asset Management and Hansongneotech Co. and existing investors Noshaq Group, Sambrinvest, SFPI-FPIM, SRIW and Smart Korea UTC Bio-Healthcare Venture Fund.
Founded in 2014 as a spin-off from the French Blood Bank (EFS) and led by Eric Halioua, CEO, PDC*line Pharma is a clinical-stage biotech company that develops an innovative class of active immunotherapies for cancers, based on a GMP-grade allogeneic therapeutic cell line of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC*line). The technology can potentially be applied to any type of cancer. Following a first-in-human phase I feasibility study in melanoma, PDC*line Pharma focuses on the development of PDC*lung01, a candidate for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) currently in phase I/II trials, and PDC*neo with neoantigens in preclinical development.
The objectives of the phase I/II study (PDC-LUNG-101) are to assess the safety, tolerability, immunogenicity and preliminary clinical activity of the drug candidate, PDC*lung01, associated or not with anti-PD-1 treatment in NSCLC. A total of 64 evaluable HLA-A*02:01 positive NSCLC patients are expected in clinical centers in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. PDC*lung01 consists of PDC*line professional antigen-presenting cells loaded with HLA-A2 restricted peptides, derived from seven shared tumor antigens.
The company has a staff of 27, raised more than €52M in equity and non-dilutive funding. In March 2019, PDC*line Pharma granted an exclusive license to the LG Chem Life Sciences company in South Korea and an exclusive option in other Asian countries, for the development and commercialization of the PDC*lung01 cancer vaccine for lung cancer. The total deal is worth $123M, plus tiered royalties on net sales in Asia.
FinSMEs
06/12/2021