NEW YORK – Biotechnology firm Complement Therapeutics announced on Monday that it completed a €72 million ($78.7 million) Series A financing round led by Belgian private equity and venture capital fund Gimv.
In addition to Gimv, existing investor Forbion co-led the funding round with BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), Panakès Partners, Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), Hadean Ventures, and Seroba Life Sciences also contributing funds.
Complement plans to use the new capital to conduct a Phase Ib clinical trial of its lead product CTx001, an adeno-associated virus gene therapy candidate for geographic atrophy (GA), a rare ocular disorder secondary to dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The Munich-headquartered firm will also use the funds to expand its laboratory activities, evaluate therapies in non-ocular diseases, and further develop its Complement Precision Medicine platform.
The company uses this platform to stratify patients with AMD and other conditions by measuring over 30 complement proteins from a blood sample. These include C3 and its breakdown products, Factor I, Factor H, FHL-1 as well as the FHR protein family.
Complement spun out of the University of Manchester in 2021 with initial funding from BGV. The firm in February 2022 received an additional €5 million in seed funding from BGV and Forbion, which supported preclinical, proof-of-concept studies for CTx001.
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has deemed the gene therapy an innovative medicine. Complement has also initiated the i-GAIN noninterventional natural history study in the UK, which it expects will inform development plans for CTx001.
In addition to the funding, Michaël Vlemmix of Gimv, Rob Woodman of Panakès, Anne Horgan of CIC, and Roger Franklin of Hadean Ventures will join Complement's board as new members.
"We are excited by the opportunity to further develop CTx001 for the treatment of GA through to the clinic." Rafiq Hasan, CEO and managing director of Complement Therapeutics, said in a statement. "The support of this broad syndicate enables us to generate additional data demonstrating CTx001's unique and differentiated mechanism of action with the potential to transform the treatment landscape in geographic atrophy."