Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics BV Closes EUR22 Million Equity Financing
Investment By Four Institutions Secures Growth Funding
Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics BV (AMT) has announced the closing of its EUR22 million private placement financing (series A round) with four top tier venture capital firms, ABN AMRO Capital/Life Sciences (AACLS), Advent Venture Partners (Advent Ventures), Gilde Healthcare Partners and Crédit Agricole Private Equity. AACLS led the financing.
AMT has a pipeline of gene therapies in clinical and preclinical development. The new funds will be used to take the clinical development of AMT's lead product AMT-011, to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency, from Phase II through to registration. Additionally, the funds will allow the Company to accelerate its preclinical gene therapy programmes for two metabolic orphan diseases (acute intermittent porphyria and hyperoxaluria), where there is unmet need; as well as a gene therapy to treat the rare but very serious and rapidly progressive retinal blindness.
"The financing provides AMT with a solid foundation on which the Company can grow its core business on an accelerated timetable. AMT can now unlock the potential of its R&D pipeline, and provide patients suffering from serious orphan diseases, caused by a monogenetic defect, a fundamental cure," said Ronald H.W. Lorijn, MD, PhD, M.B.A., Chief Executive Officer of AMT.
Commenting on the funding, Sander Slootweg, a director with ABN AMRO Capital/Life Sciences said "We have always been firm believers of Gene Therapy as a potential cure for many currently untreatable diseases. It was not until we reviewed AMT's pipeline and underlying vector design and manufacturing technologies that we realized that we are really on the cusp of a breakthrough in this field. AMT-011 may actually be the first real Gene Therapy to be available to patients in the Western world. Although it initially addresses a modest market in terms of numbers of patients, the revenue potential of AMT-011 is significant, especially when considering the larger LPL type V market that can be targeted with the same product".
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