Several private investors as well as the institutional investor PPF Group participated in the seed financing round. Cellestia Biotech CEO Michael Bauer said in a statement that he is grateful to the investors who supported the company’s successful start up, adding that he is particularly pleased to welcome PPF Group with its business and development expertise. “With this strong support, we are confident to bring this exciting new therapy to patients as soon as possible”.
Cellestia develops cancer treatments based on what is called NOTCH signalling pathway. When genetic lesions activate the NOTCH pathway, it becomes a major driver for NOTCH-dependant cancers; inhibiting it, on the other hand, is a potential means of treating cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma.
Cellestia’s lead candidate is CB-103 has already proven effective against NOTCH-dependent cancers in pre-clinical studies. The funds raised will now go towards advancing the compound to the clinical development phase.
“The preclinical data of CB-103 have proven that the broad inhibition of the NOTCH signalling pathway is a very promising approach for the treatment of cancer,” said Jens Hennecke, Chief Business Officer at the biotechnology company SOTIO, which belongs to the PPF Group. “We are very much looking forward to demonstrating the benefit of CB-103 to cancer patients.”
Cellestia Biotech was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and is located in the Technologiepark Basel.
