ALENTIS Therapeutics raises CHF 12.5m in a Series A

ALENTIS’ lead program is a humanized monoclonal antibody against a target that plays a key role in the pathology of liver fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Advanced liver disease and cancer are major clinical challenges world-wide and characterized by a poor outcome and limited therapeutic options.

Markus L.E. Ewert, PhD, MBA has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. Markus was previously CBO at Ablynx, contributing to both its US IPO and highly successful sale to Sanofi. Before, he led global corporate development at GE Healthcare, had leadership positions at Novartis, and has a track record of building businesses based on innovations.

ALENTIS’ Board of Directors will comprise Neil Goldsmith, a co-founder and Chairman; Andreas Wallnöfer, General Partner at BioMedPartners; Martin Münchbach, Managing Partner at BB Pureos Bioventures; Benoit Barteau, Senior Investment Manager at BPI France, and Prof. Thomas F. Baumert, the principal founder.

ALENTIS’ research is powered by its proprietary drug discovery platform, which is based on a prognostic liver disease signature holding promise for the discovery and development of further drug candidates to treat advanced liver diseases and cancer.

ALENTIS is founded on ground-breaking research of the laboratory of Prof. Thomas Baumert, MD at the University of Strasbourg, the Inserm Institute for Viral and Liver Disease, the Laboratory of Excellence HepSYS and the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Strasbourg as well as other collaborators, including Prof. Yujin Hoshida, MD at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. SATT Conectus, the organization for accelerating technology transfer in the Alsace territory (France) has been essential in providing, building and securing the IP portfolio that has been licensed to ALENTIS. BaseLaunch, a healthcare accelerator operated by BaselArea.swiss, has been instrumental as an early stage financial and operational supporter in the formation of the company. As a result of this tri-national collaboration, ALENTIS’ headquarters have been incorporated in Basel (Switzerland) with a subsidiary in Strasbourg (France) and a branch in Germany.

Convincing preclinical data
Andreas Wallnöfer, former Head of Clinical Research & Exploratory Development at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and General Partner at BioMedPartners added: “The pre-clinical data set of the ALENTIS lead molecule are most comprehensive and convincing: they support the therapeutic potential in advanced liver disease of different origins. Prof. Baumert’s research is truly translational and links pre-clinic and clinic through a prognostic gene expression signature, which is most valuable to optimally characterize the lead project and fuel further programs.”  

(Press release)