Epsilogen raise £30.75m in Series B financing

New investors 3B Future Health Fund and British Patient Capital, Schroders Capital and Caribou Property joined Novartis along with the Series A investors Epidarex Capital and ALSA Ventures that also participated in the oversubscribed finanacing round. With the closing of the financing, Dr Marianne Uteng of Novartis Venture Fund and Dr Marianne Bjordal of 3B Future Health Fund joined Epsilogen’s Board of Directors.

Epsilogen, formerly IGEM Therapeutics, will use the proceeds to push development of its lead candidate MOv18 IgE to Phase IIb clinical proof of concept as second-line ovarian cancer treatment. MOv18 IgE is the first chimeric IgE antibody targeting the folate receptor alpha. According to previous work of Professor Sophia Karagianni, the company suggests that IgE antibodies may trigger a more powerful immune response to tumour cells than currently available IgG antibodies. Consequently, they want to create a pipeline of class-switched IgE versions of approved IgG-based therapeutic antibodies.