Utrecht Holdings participated in a round that will support the cancer immunotherapy spinout as it looks to advance a leukaemia candidate into clinical testing.
Netherland-based cancer immunotherapy developer Gadeta, a spinout of University Medical Centre (UMC) Utrecht, closed a €7m ($7.9m) series A round on Tuesday featuring Utrecht Holdings, the tech transfer office of Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht.
The round was co-led by Baxalta Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of pharmaceutical company Baxalta, and venture capital firm Medicxi Ventures. Company founders and management also participated in the round,
Founded in 2015, Gadeta is working on cancer immunotherapies based on a technology platform that creates optimised gamma delta T-cell receptors with enhanced anti-cancer reactivity. It expects to initiate a phase I/IIa clinical trial for its lead program in acute myeloid leukaemia early next year. The platform is based on research by Prof Jürgen Kuball.
Mark de Boer, co-founder and acting CEO of Gadeta, said: “Supported by the Series A financing, we are excited to accelerate our programs and rapidly advance them to the clinic.
“With its unique ability to target the metabolic changes in tumour cells, the strong therapeutic potential of our platform holds tremendous promise for the treatment of haematological and solid tumours.”
De Boer, co-founder Jürgen Kuball, Utrecht Holdings and Medicxi had previously supplied an undisclosed amount of seed funding for Gadeta.
– A version of this article first appeared on Global Corporate Venturing.
