Promethera bags €20m for liver failure treatment

The Belgian cell therapy specialist was supported by an investor consortium from Belgium, Germany and China. The Hongkong company Tata Health International Holding will invest €10m through its affiliate Shang Ying International Holdings. At the same time, a license agreement will allow the clinical development of HepaStem in China. European investors such as Fund Plus, SMS Investments, Sopartec and Sofipôle are also on board. The funds raised will go towards the clinical development of Promethera’s cell therapy HepaStem, which the company hopes will prove to serve as an alternative to liver transplant in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure. The disease affects 50,000 patients each year in the US and EU alone. For many patients, liver transplantation is the only option.

HepaStem aims to offer a less invasive alternative. Liver stem cells are administered to the patient intravenously and are transported through the blood into the liver, with the intent to reduce the severe systemic and liver inflammation, and thereby, restoring liver health. The Phase IIB clinical trial Promethera is planning, is building on the Phase IIA study which has demonstrated safety and preliminary signs of efficacy in ACLF. Preclinical and clinical results have suggested that HepaStem may reduce inflammation and fibrosis through its ability to perform paracrine regenerative and immunomodulatory functions on CD4+ T cells and liver cells. These combined effects are expected to play a favourable role in the restoration of liver homeostasis.

“This new phase of our clinical development offers a great opportunity for growth for the company but also a therapeutic innovation for the hepatological community, that of participating in the development of a drug of a new kind, and which we hope will bring patients a real benefit in this lethal disease, without current therapeutic solution,” commented Etienne Sokal, founder and Chairman of the Board of Promethera.