Neobe Therapeutics raises $2.34m to advance fight against cancer
The company is transforming cancer treatment through engineered live biotherapeutics.
The tumour microenvironment creates multiple constraints to the success of immunotherapy in solid tumours. In a subset of patients, the highly fibrotic stroma can create barriers to immune infiltration leading to immune excluded tumours.
Neobe’s programmable live therapeutics are engineered to remove these barriers in a safe and targeted way, expanding the benefits of immunotherapies to non-responding cancer patients.
Keith Blundy, a highly successful serial BioMedTech pioneer, is a director and chair of the business. He is former CEO of Cancer Research Technology and STORM Therapeutics and has experience in strategy & licensing, drug development and VC fund raising. He was also formerly a director of KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, Mission Therapeutics and Inivata.
The funding milestone was achieved with the support of new investors Pioneer Group – the lead – and 2048 Ventures, alongside existing backers Deep Science Ventures, Cancer Research Horizons and Discovery Park Ventures.
The round also received a non-dilutive grant award from Innovate UK’s Cancer Therapeutics fund through the Investor Partnership programme.
Since inception Neobe has successfully engineered two differentiated proprietary products aimed at enabling immunotherapy efficacy in patients with colorectal, pancreatic and breast cancer, with demonstrated pre-clinical efficacy.
The company was founded by Pedro Correa de Sampaio, the CEO, and Annelise Soulier in 2021, from a venture creation alliance between Deep Science Ventures and Cancer Research Horizons established to help founder-type scientists build high-impact ventures in oncology, using DSV's proven approach to ideation-based innovation.
Neobe was created specifically to address the key issue of existing barriers created by the local microenvironment of solid tumours which prevent the infiltration of cancer reactive immune cells.
This ‘immune exclusion’ is a key contributing factor in why about 80 per cent of patients with solid tumours still do not respond to life changing immunotherapies.
“We are immensely grateful for the continued backing of our existing investors and thrilled to have Pioneer Group and 2048 Ventures join Neobe’s journey,” said Pedro Correa de Sampaio.
“The trust and support of all our investors as well as Innovate UK truly validates our innovative approach, harnessing synthetic biology to build safer and more effective strategies to enable therapeutic efficacy in cancer patients.
“Our mission continues to be to transform cancer treatment through engineered live biotherapeutics and with this support we are one step closer to making that a reality.”
Neobe’s CEO is a tumour microenvironment expert with over 12 years of research experience in top institutions including CRUK Cambridge Institute and MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Co-founder and CSO Annelise Soulier is a specialist in molecular biology, microbiology and bacterial engineering. Formerly at Prokarium, she has more than seven years experience in the engineering and development of bacterial therapeutic products for different disease indications. Soulier was co-inventor of the patented engineered live biotherapeutics currently in clinical trials.
