Zika & Chikungunya Vaccine Development Boosted By Cash Injection
Themis Bioscience successfully closed 10 Mio EUR financing round
Themis Bioscience successfully closed a Series B financing round of 10 Mio Euro. The fresh capital will be used to complete a phase 2 clinical trial of its lead product, a vaccine candidate against Chikungunya fever. Further products that will benefit include the company's zika virus vaccine whose development just recently received significant financial support by Innovate UK.
Dr. Erich Tauber, CEO and co-founder of Themis, on the successful completion of the company's second financing round: "We are delighted about the continuous trust of our existing investors and of Austria's leading Venture Fund aws Gruenderfonds. This trust and our recent excellent product development and technology progress have also attracted new investors and we are very grateful for their support." The now successfully closed investment round included the existing investors Ventech, Omnes Capital and Wellington Partners with the latter leading the round. New investors were undisclosed business angels with a focus on vaccine development and the aws Gruenderfonds.
Dr. Regina Hodits, General Partner at the lead investor Wellington Partners, comments on their investment decision: "Themis' focus on prophylactic vaccines for emerging tropical infectious diseases, its patented platform technology and the recent very encouraging results from a phase 1 clinical trial of its lead candidate make the company a very attractive investment opportunity. We want the company's vaccine portfolio to develop at a fast pace and are willing and determined to support Themis on its growth path."
Dr. Gerd Zettlmeissl, Chairman of the supervisory board of Themis, comments on the future company plans: "We are grateful for the trust of our existing and new investors and I am pleased to welcome Ralf Kunzmann of the aws Gruenderfonds as a new member of our supervisory board. The new capital will primarily be dedicated to finalize the phase 2 clinical trial of our Chikungunya vaccine and to prepare for respective phase 3 trials." Furthermore, Themis will use the additional investment to continue the exploitation of the know-how it acquired with the Chikungunya vaccine's development for further prophylactic vaccines. These include a vaccine against the Zika virus whose advance into the clinical trial phase by Themis was recently supported by the United Kingdom's innovation agency, Innovate UK, with 1 Mio. GBP.
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