Funds raised for T cell research
of financing, raising DK 40 million (€5.4m) in a deal that will set
the company up to take its T cell-based technologies, used for both
the localisation and treatment of cancer, into the clinic.
Danish biotech company T-cellic has just completed its second round of financing, raising DK 40 million (€5.4m) in a deal that will set the company up to take its T-cell-based technologies into the clinic.
Elsebeth Budolfsen, managing director of T-cellic, said that the fund-raising has provided enough capital to proceed to clinical studies in 2005.
"Our technology combines therapy and localisation in a concept which is unique," she said. Using the approach, a patient's own T cells are used as specific transporters for an active drug, something that provides much more sophisticated targeting than conventional drug delivery techniques.
T-cellic has a particular interest in developing the T cell technology for oncology applications. "T-cell-guided Therapy opens perspectives for a major improvement in the treatment of cancer. This concept has the potential to become a much more targeted and effective therapy than existing treatments, due to a dramatically improved relation between effect and side effects," said Budolfsen.
The company has already shown that activated T cells carrying a radiolabel or other imaging agents can provide very effective imaging of tumour masses in vivo, suggesting applications in diagnosing and estimating the staging of cancers.
In collaboration with researchers from århus University in Denmark, T-cellic has already demonstrated that this technology enables them to identify and locate tumours which are significantly smaller than is possible with present diagnostic methods.
Meanwhile, it is a short leap from using T cells to deliver an imaging agent to their application to deliver therapeutic compounds. When injected into the patient, it is expected that the activated T cells will migrate to the site of the tumour and release their cytotoxic payload locally, thereby reducing the side effects associated with systemic treatment regimens.
T-cellic hopes to develop and introduce a range of cancer therapeutics based on the localisation technology, including T cells linked to cytostatic drugs, radioisotopes and light-activated photosensitisers for photodynamic therapy.
"The results with T-cellic are unprecedented, and we believe this technology will become epoch-making within the treatment of cancer," commented Henrik Lawaetz, founding partner of Scandinavian Life Science Venture (SLS) one of the investors involved in the latest financing round.
