Claris Ventures leads £15.2m series-B for NeoPhore

2Invest, 3B Future Health Fund, Astellas Venture Management and CRT Pioneer Fund also took part in the round.

As part of the deal, Pietro Puglisi from Claris Ventures, Heikki Lanckriet from 2Invest and Marianne Bjordal from 3B will join the board of NeoPhore as directors.

This is the first deal inked by Claris via its debut fund, Claris Biotech I, which held a €30m first close in September 2020. The vehicle invests in early-stage rounds across the biopharma industry, focusing on oncology, immunology, rare diseases and other therapeutic areas with limited treatment opportunities.

Previous funding
NeoPhore raised £3m from Sixth Element Capital in 2017.

Company
NeoPhore was established in 2017 in a spin-out from Cambridge-based drug discovery company PhoreMost.

NeoPhore focuses on the discovery and development of novel first-in-class small molecules targeting the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway to treat cancer.

These molecules stimulate neoantigen creation in cancer cells marking them for attack by a patient's own immune system. NeoPhore's drugs are designed to stimulate immunity directly at cancer's core, by interfering with DNA repair and forcing cancer to continuously produce neoantigens that will be detected by the immune system.

The company has a partnership with the University of Turin.

People
Claris Ventures – Pietro Puglisi (managing partner).
NeoPhore – Robert James (chair); Matthew Baker (CEO); Alberto Bardelli (founder).

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

• Topics
• Early-stage
• UK / Ireland
• Healthcare
• Venture
• United Kingdom