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Immune Targeting Systems (ITS) Ltd. Concludes a Series-A Funding Round of GBP 3.5M (EUR 5.2M)

Posted on: Monday, 16 July 2007, 03:07 CDT

Immune Targeting Systems (ITS) Limited ("ITS"), the company developing synthetic vaccines for mutating viruses, today announced it had closed its series-A equity funding round for £3.5m (€5.2m, $7.0m). This is ITS's first significant funding round with major Global life science and specialist investors which included the Novartis Venture Fund (US & Basel) www.venturefund.novartis.com; Truffle Capital (France) www.truffle.com; HealthCap (Sweden) www.healthcap.se; and the London Technology Fund (UK) www.londontechnologyfund.com. The London Development Agency will also be contributing an Exceptional Development Project award of £500,000 (€0.74m, $1.0m) under the Grant for Research and Development scheme.

The company, founded in 2004 as a spin-in to the London School of Pharmacy, University of London (UK), has developed a patented synthetic vaccine technology designed specifically to target genetically diverse mutation-prone viruses where cellular immunity is critical to disease protection. Diseases like Influenza-A, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis-C are all potential vaccine targets. A synthetic universal flu vaccine is initially being developed with the potential to target all Influenza-A virus strains likely to be implicated in both seasonal and pandemic flu outbreaks.

Following the investment, the board of directors will be complemented by five highly experienced and accomplished bioentrepreneurs and venture capital investors; Dan Adams (CEO / President; Protein Science Corp.), Martin Becker (former CEO / President XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.), Florent Gros (Novartis Venture Fund), Philippe Pouletty (Truffle Capital) and Magnus Persson (HealthCap). The British Government's Global Entrepreneurs Programme (UKTI) assisted the fundraising and through its Global Entrepreneurs Mentoring Programme introduced ITS to the international senior industry executives Dan Adams and Martin Becker who have joined the board of directors.

Carlton Brown, CEO of ITS, commented: "We are delighted to have raised investment from such a strong syndicate of specialist investors focussed on developing companies and bringing important disease control medicines and vaccines to the market. Dr. Phil Sizer, ITS Research and Development Director said: "The combination of our unique proprietary bioinformatics antigen identification platform and vaccine delivery system renders a powerful and novel technology for the prevention and treatment of diseases caused by rapidly mutating viruses. Florent Gros, Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund, having led the investment syndicate commented "we believe strongly in the need to speed up vaccine discoveries and in the potential of the ITS technology platform over many other technology alternatives. We are thrilled to support a group of experienced scientists to develop breakthrough vaccines for major unmet medical needs." Philippe Pouletty, MD, General Partner of Truffle Capital commented "we are impressed by the strength and commitment of the management team, a critical asset to build a successful biotechnology company". Magnus Persson Partner at HealthCap "We think that ITS has a uniquely positioned technology in the vaccine field and a solid management team. Thus, we are very proud to take an active role in ITS' future success at this early stage. We believe ITS will become yet another successful vaccine investment for HealthCap."

Source: Business Wire

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