The biotech company Integra Therapeutics, a member of Catalonia.health, has announced it has closed a €10.7 million pre–Series A round of investment to advance the development of its FiCAT genetic editing platform and the preclinical validation of CAR-T therapies. The funds come from new investors like the EIC Fund —the venture capital arm of the European Innovation Council (EIC) with the European Investment Bank (EIB) as the investor of record—, which invested €4 million, and CDTI Innvierte of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University, which contributed €2.7 million, as well as from existing investors AdBio Partners, Invivo Partners, also members of Catalonia.health, Columbus Venture Partners and Takeda Ventures, which continue to support the company's vision.
The funds will be used to incorporate new advances into the FiCAT gene writing platform, validate various next generation CAR-T therapies in the preclinical phase and expand the FiCAT cell engineering capabilities to facilitate technology transfer to the pharmaceutical industry. In May, the company announced new, highly promising preclinical data for its FiCAT platform at the 28th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT). Moreover, Integra is developing its first gene therapy for a rare pediatric liver disease, funded by an EIC Accelerator grant.
“Thanks to the support of our investors, we will continue leading innovation in cell and gene therapies and are getting closer to transforming the treatment of complex diseases like cancer, autoimmune diseases and rare diseases,” explains Avencia Sánchez-Mejías, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Integra Therapeutics.
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