Riboxx, a biotech spin-out of Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden), is aiming to avoid traditional investment from big pharmaceutical companies. It will instead endeavour to crowdfund €400,000 ($537,000) on Seedmatch, a German platform targeted specifically at startups.
Riboxx has already secured investments from the Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, a venture capital fund for startups based in Saxony. It has also received funding from Go-Bio, an initiative by the German federal government’s Ministry for Education and Research. The European Regional Development Fund meanwhile has provided assets funding. The size of none of these investments has been disclosed.
Spun out in 2009 from TU Dresden’s Faculty of Medicine and based on research by Jacques Rohayem , Riboxx develops drugs that aim to prevent cancer recurrence. To achieve this, the company develops and manufactures Riboxxim, a so-called immunomodulator which it is hoping to use for therapeutic vaccines against cancer.
The crowdfunding launches on July 30, 2014 with minimum investments set at €250 ($335). If successful, the company will use the raised money to begin clinical trials. The company’s reasoning for choosing crowdfunding instead of traditional investments is the ability to conduct its research and development with greater independence.
Riboxx is currently valued at €9.6m ($12.9m).
Jacques Rohayem nevertheless understands the limitations of crowdfunding and said: “We are aware that we, as a highly innovative but small company, cannot develop a drug against cancer on our own. It is not simply a question of know-how, but mainly one of requiring financial resources. For that we will eventually need big pharmaceutical companies.” [translated from German by Global University Venturing]
