Funding round will support Emergex’s pipeline of set-point vaccines for infectious diseases.
Based in the United Kingdom, Emergex is a biotechnology company that develops set-point vaccines to prevent some of the worlds most immediate and virulent diseases such as Zika, Dengue Fever, Ebola, and pandemic Flu.
In January 2020, Emergex announced that it has secured over US$ 11 million in a Series A round of funding. Vickers Venture Partners, a global early stage Venture Capital company led the round. Dr Finian Tan, Chairman of Vickers Venture Partners will be joining the Emergex Board as a non-executive director.
The company was founded in 2016 and has been focused on developing vaccines that prevent virulent diseases. Emergex’s set-point vaccines deliver experimentally-derived pathogen peptide data via quantum-sized nanoclusters to prime the immune system to recognise subsequent infections, mimicking natural infection and preventing severe manifestation of the disease. Its T-cell vaccines trigger different responses compared to traditional antibody-producing vaccines, eliminating allergic, autoimmune or antibody-mediated side effects.
This financing round will support the progress of Emergex’s development pipeline, including a first-in-man Phase 1 clinical trial of its Flavivirus vaccine in Switzerland and Phase 1b clinical trials in the endemic regions of Singapore and Brazil. The funds will also support the Universal Influenza and Filovirus programmes through the preclinical stages and early clinical trials.
Professor Thomas Rademacher, CEO and co-founder of Emergex, commented, “Attracting such high calibre investors is an endorsement of our development pipeline and validation of the potential our technologies hold in the field of infectious diseases. These new funds will support us to achieve some significant value-enhancing milestones as we progress our lead vaccine candidates into clinical development.”
In addition to the financing, Vickers Venture Partners will assist Emergex with strategic growth by leveraging on its experienced team of technical experts who have a strong track record in helping life science companies raise capital and scaling up commercially by connecting these companies to its network of investment and industry partners.
Dr Finian Tan, Chairman of Vickers Venture Partners and a new Emergex non-executive director, added, “With today’s rising global population, the risk posed by infectious diseases is greater than ever before. As such, it is vital that we value and pursue innovation to ensure we have effective healthcare options. We see great potential in Emergex’s technology as it allows vaccines to be produced quickly, administered easily and sold at a fraction of current prices. We believe that this would revolutionize the entire world of vaccines and increase access to a larger number of people around the world.”
Emergex has achieved significant milestones over the past year, including demonstrating a safety profile for the base particle used in all its vaccines and a safety profile for the final dengue vaccine construct.
It has also signed a collaboration agreement with Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*STAR’s) Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology to develop a vaccine for Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. [APBN]