Ikarovec seed funding round closes at £8m
The financing was led by existing investors LifeArc Ventures and Parkwalk Advisors, with UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital) also participating. The company is moving towards IND-enabling studies for its lead programme, IKC159V, in geographic atrophy (GA), which causes major sight loss in millions of people globally.
The funds will enable the company to continue advanced preclinical studies with IKC159V, a novel bicistronic gene therapy that secretes two clinically relevant proteins that reduce overall oxidative stress and inflammation, key hallmarks of GA, in one injection.
They also protect the retinal cells from atrophy and reduce the overall risk of conversion of GA to wet age-related macular degeneration. Other preclinical work and manufacturing process development will also take place with the funding.
The company says that IKC159V has shown robust and differentiated data in multiple disease relevant models, with superior efficacy to single gene therapies in comparative studies.
Ikarovec says it has demonstrated that the gene therapy protects key retinal cells from damage whilst minimising vessel leakage and instability – processes that lead to disease progression.
CSO Dr Katie Binley said: “We’re excited by the progress we’ve made with our lead programme for geographic atrophy and are advancing it towards the clinic as quickly as possible. Ikarovec would like to thank its investors for their continued support to enable us to do this and to advance our pipeline of gene therapies for major eye diseases.”
Chairman Dr David Guyer added: “Ikarovec’s approach of expressing clinically relevant and synergistically acting proteins via bicistronic vectors differentiates it in the ophthalmic gene therapy area. The company is grateful for the ongoing recognition of its potential by LifeArc Ventures, Parkwalk Advisors and UKI2S as we develop important new products for devastating eye conditions.”
Ikarovec has appointed Dr Jean-Philippe Combal of Vivet Therapeutics and SpliceBio to its board as a Non-Executive Director. He brings extensive experience in both ophthalmic product development and gene therapy through positions at GenSight Biologics and Sanofi-Fovea.