Ysios Capital, OrbiMed lead €79m series-C for Galecto

New investors HBM Healthcare Investments, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Maverick Ventures, OrbiMed Israel and Seventure Partners also took part in the round, alongside previous backers Novo Seeds, M Ventures and Sunstone Capital.

Following the deal, Ysios's Karen Wagner, OrbiMed's Chau Khuong HBM's Chandra Leo and OrbiMed Israel's Erez Chimovits will be appointed to the company's board.

Galecto intends to use the fresh capital to conduct a phase-II/III clinical study of inhaled TD139, a selective inhibitor of galectin-3, in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic disease characterised by progressive decline in lung function. The clinical study will be conducted by Galecto in Europe and North America following positive data obtained from the phase-I/IIa.

The funding will also be used for the advancement of additional oral and ocular Gal-3 inhibitor drug candidates into clinical studies.

Previous funding
Novo Seeds, M Ventures – the corporate venture arm of Merck – Sunstone Capital and Seed Capital invested an undisclosed sum in Galecto in May 2012.

Subsequently, they provided a SEK 40m capital injection in October 2013, with a further SEK 40m being supplied by the Wallenberg Foundation a month later.

Company
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Copenhagen, Galecto specialises in developing drugs for the treatment of severe diseases, including fibrosis and cancer. The company's products target galectins, a group of proteins shown to be involved in many disease processes.

People
Ysios Capital – Karen Wagner (general partner).
OrbiMed – Chau Khuong (partner).
Galecto Biotech – Hans Schambye (CEO).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Early-stage
• Nordics
• Healthcare
• Ysios Capital
• Denmark
• Venture