Cellestia Biotech raises CHF 20 million

Cellestia Biotech AG announced the closing of a CHF 20 million Series A financing round. The new funds will be added to the previous CHF 8 million Seed financing and CHF 1 million non-dilutive research grants, bringing the total capital raised to date by Cellestia to CHF 29 million. Upon closing of the Series A financing, FC Capital and PPF/Sotio will become major shareholders of Cellestia Biotech AG. ETP Ventures contributed to the round as well as existing and new private investors. The funds will be used to complete the ongoing Phase I clinical trial and advance Cellestia’s R&D pipeline.

Cellestia is progressing the ongoing clinical development program of CB-103, a first-in-class targeted therapy with a novel mode of action. CB-103 is a highly selective oncogene transcription factor inhibitor for precision medicine treatment of various cancers. A pre-clinical “proof of concept” has been achieved, with efficacy demonstrated in vitro as well as in vivo in various animal models, e.g. triple negative breast cancer and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) models. Most importantly, anti-leukemic efficacy was shown for CB-103 alone and in combination with various chemotherapy regimen, eliminating leukemic cells from patients-derived blood samples. Phase I clinical trials have started a year ago. First patient data confirm expectations on pharmacokinetics, safety and efficacy

“We thank our existing shareholders for their continued support of Cellestia. It is a great honour for us to welcome both new institutional investors FC Capital and ETP, as well as new private investors in this financing round. The additional capital will enable us to reach important milestones and to continue creating value for our shareholders,” commented Michael Bauer, CEO of Cellestia Biotech AG. “In addition, we all very much look forward to working with Melissa Epstein. Her experience and global network in the intellectual property, corporate law and M&A fields strongly complements Cellestia’s existing Board of Directors.”

Upon closing of the transaction, Melissa Kay Epstein has been elected to Cellestia’s Board of Directors. “This is an exciting time to become involved with Cellestia. I am proud to join such an experienced management team and a company developing an innovative novel cancer therapy.” said Melissa Epstein.

"Cellestia is at the forefront of developing innovative products addressing unmet medical needs in cancer treatment," said Danny Xiang, founder, managing partner at FC Capital. "Under the leadership of an incredible team and with a strategic focus on anti-cancer drugs modulating the NOTCH signalling pathway, Cellestia is uniquely positioned to realize the potential of this modality to impact patients across the globe.”