Centauri Therapeutics starting with £24m financing

The financing round of the London-based immunotherapy specialist was led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Evotec SE, and Novo Holdings’ REPAIR Impact Fund. Seed investors also participated, including the company’s founding investor Animatrix Founders LLP /LAK Holdings LLP, Kent Life Science LLP, and Wren Capital.

Centauri Therapeutics licenced the Alphamer technology in 2016 from Altermune Technologies LLC, which was a joint-venture of PCR inventor Kary Mullis and Loxbridge Research LLP focussed on redirecting endogenous antibodies circulating in the bloodstream to specific pathogens. What they called "reprogrammable immunity" worked by linking antibodies, which were not tasked by the body in fighting infections, to selected pathogens. The linker molecules work through having two distinct ends. One end binds a consistent cell-surface target on the pathogen using an aptamer, and the other end attracts the circulating antibodies.

According to Centauri Therapeutics, which wants to use the assets to push candidate drugs to clinical studies, the innovative drugs trigger both innate and adaptive immunity to elicit an immune response that clears the infection. The continual emergence of AMR bacteria is resulting in increasingly difficult-to-treat infections, with an estimated 1.2 million global deaths due to AMR, according to figures published in 2022.

New modalities that can target drug-resistant bacteria such as MRSA, Clostridium difficile, or Pseudomonas, more effectively are urgently needed, and the Alphamer technology could help to broaden the anti-infective arsenal to reduce the global impact of AMR and improve patient outcomes. 

Dr Sebastian Kreuz, Investment Director, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, joining Centauri as Board Observer said: “The Alphamer technology is a highly innovative and, so far, an unprecedented concept based on the induction of pathogen-directed immune responses. Alongside our co-investors, we look forward to progressing Centauri’s lead programme targeting Gram-negative bacterial infections towards clinical validation, and to further broadening its Alphamer pipeline.” Karen Lackey, Global Head of Integrated Drug Discovery, Evotec SE, added: “AMR is an emerging global health threat and needs to be urgently addressed with novel, more effective treatments.” Dr Camilla Petrycer Hansen, Principal, Novo Holdings and REPAIR Impact Fund, said: “This is an exciting, non-traditional approach that could bring highly differentiated immunotherapies to patients.” Dr Johannes Zanzinger, Investment Director at Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Karen Lackey, Global Head of Integrated Drug Discovery at Evotec SE, and Dr Camilla Petrycer, Principal, Novo Holdings REPAIR Impact Fund, join Centauri’s Board of Directors.