Plans include phase 3 clinical development of a novel GBS vaccine and an efficacy evaluation.
MinervaX – a company developing a novel vaccine against group B streptococcus (GBS) – has announced the successful completion of a €72m financing round.
Equity financing, amounting to €22m, was led by new investors Trill Impact Ventures and Pureos Bioventures and includes existing investors Sanofi Ventures, REPAIR Impact Fund, Sunstone Life Science Ventures, LF Investment, Wellington Partners, Adjuvant Capital and Industrifonden.
In addition to the equity financing, the European Investment Bank provided a €50m loan facility.
It is a timely boost to MinervaX’s clinical development of its GBS vaccine, as the company embarks on the enrolment of pregnant women for its phase 2 clinical trial in the UK, Denmark, and South Africa. Meanwhile it has also completed dosing of healthy adult women, previously dosed with its GBS vaccine, in a phase 1 booster clinical trial in the UK.
Furthermore, the financing will enable MinervaX to advance the late-stage development of its GBS vaccine candidate in preparation for a phase 3 clinical trial. The candidate was recently awarded PRIME status by the European Medicines Agency due to its potential to prevent life-threatening infections among newborn babies.
Ultimately, MinervaX aims to expand its clinical development team and evaluate the phase 2 clinical data for safety and efficacy next year.
Veronica Gambillara, a partner at Pureos Bioventures, reflected: “We are excited to join the MinervaX team and support the development of this vaccine, which could protect against one of the leading causes of neonatal and infant sepsis. We are impressed with the clinical data previously generated and the dedication of the leadership team.”
She added: “This financing will expedite the development of a product that has the potential to drastically improve the options available to address GBS infections.”
Per Fischer, chief executive officer of MinervaX, concluded: “We are delighted to announce this financing, which gives us the firepower to accelerate the development of our novel GBS vaccine. GBS can be life-threatening for newborn babies and there is no approved, universally available vaccine to date.”
