UK-based cancer therapy developer Celleron Therapeutics is lining up $16m in funding from a consortium including NHN Investment, the corporate venture capital arm of internet company Naver, the Korea Herald has reported.
Korea Investment Partners is investing $6m while NHN and two unnamed venture capital firms based in Korea are providing the other $10m.
Founded in 2005, Celleron is working on personalised cancer treatments, including a platform known as CXD101. The company will use the cash to enter the therapy into a phase 2 clinical trial.
Celleron reported promising results of the phase 1 clinical trial for CXD101 in December 2015. That initial trial was conducted at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, while the phase 2 trial is expected to be conducted at South Korean hospitals.
The company intends to form a strategic partnership with an undisclosed South Korea-based pharmaceutical firm, which is reportedly already an investor, to commercialise the drug in east Asia once the phase 2 trial has been successfully completed.
– This article first appeared on our sister site Global Corporate Venturing.
