Sambrinvest joins €23.6m series-B round in bioscience

The spin-off company of the Université Catholique de Louvain is developing HepaStem, a cure for liver diseases.

It held its first financing round in 2009 and attracted €5.3m in funding from Belgian investors Vesalius Biocapital, SRIW, Vives-Louvain Technology Fund, Life Science Research Partners, NivelInvest, Luxembourgeoise, Sopartec and business angels.

This investment allowed the company to spin off the university. It has since been granted the right to start a phase I/II clinical study of the cell therapy product in Belgium and the UK.

Company
Promethera was formed in 2009 by Sopartec S.A., UCL's technology transfer company, and Professor Etienne Sokal.

Professor Sokal discovered the basis of HepaSterm, the HHALPC cell, together with doctor Najimi at the UCL laboratories in 2005. They also acquired the patent for the stem cell in Europe.

Since spinning off UCL, Promethera has grown to a staff of over 40 and has received official GMP accreditation from the Belgian authorities (AFMPS).

The company has premises in Mont-Saint-Guibert. As well as HepaSterm it is developing HepaScreen, a related product that is used to evaluate the behaviour of new drugs in humans.

People
Eric Halioua is CEO at Promethera Biosciencies. Doctor Ilka Wicke is director at the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture fund.

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• Benelux
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• Early-stage