Engimmune Therapeutics raises CHF15.5m in seed financing

Pureos Bioventures and Novo Holdings co-led the financing of Engimmune Therapeutics, a spin-off from the research group of Prof. Sai Reddy at the Department for Biosystems Science and Engineering (Basel) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The  company that was incubated and initially financed via BaseLaunch, an incubator and accelerator operated by the investment and innovation promotion agency Basel Area Business & Innovation., wants to use the money to expand its pipeline of TCR-redirected T cell therapies (TCR-T) and soluble TCR biologics (sTCRs) that target solid tumours, and to expand its team in Switzerland and in Denmark, where the company wants to establish a centre for cGMP-compliant production,clinical testing and regulatory affairs.

Engimmune is a specialist in TCR discovery, development and engineering for cancer treatment and has filed a patent on a cell line that allows an optimised functional screening and engineering of TCR therapeutics that can be directed against cancer and autoimmunity targets. 

The Company has hired TCR pioneer and industry veteran Dr Bent Jakobsen as Chairman of the Board. Former chief scientist and co-founder of Immunocore, a soluble TCR therapeutics company, and Adaptimmune, an adoptive TCR-T cell therapy company, Dr Jakobsen is a global expert in the field of T cell immunology. As part of the transaction, Dominik Escher and Jørgen Søberg Petersen join as Board Directors, and Ximing Ding and João Ribas join as Observers.