Pevion Biotech Closes Series A Financing
BERN, Germany, August 10, 2007 – Pevion Biotech today announced the closing of a CHF 35 million (about EUR 22 million) Series A private financing round. The round was led by the new investor BZ Bank Aktiengesellschaft. New investors joining the Series A also include BB Biotech Ventures II, L.P. and CC Private Equity Partners Ltd. The current investor Bachem Holding AG also participated in this financing round. Pevion Biotech has raised a total of CHF 55 million (about EUR 35 million) to date.
"We are very pleased to have four strong investors in this Series A round," said Peter Klein, CEO of Pevion Biotech. "With their support Pevion Biotech is able to advance its vaccines in clinical development and further extend its unique portfolio of novel virosome-based vaccines."
Pevion Biotech, which has three of its vaccine products in clinical testing (two projects in clinical phase I and one project in clinical phase II), will use the funds raised in this Series A round to advance the hepatitis C and breast cancer vaccines into clinical phase II and to progress its preclinical vaccine candidates against RSV and Candida infections into clinical development.
Peter Grogg, president of Bachem Holding AG and chairman of the board of directors of Pevion Biotech commented: "Pevion Biotech has built an attractive vaccine portfolio with a strong intellectual property position and is a solidly growing company in the very attractive vaccine
field. This allowed us to attract other investors experienced in healthcare for this Series A round. The money raised renders possible a further development of the company within the next few years."
About Pevion Biotech
Pevion Biotech is a privately owned Swiss biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines based on its market-validated virosometechnology. The company is a leading specialist in the development of effective and safe vaccines based on its proprietary technology platforms. Pevion Biotech’s development pipeline includes, among others, vaccines against breast cancer, candida, RSV, malaria and hepatitis C.
Pevion Biotech was founded in 2002 as a joint venture company of Bachem Holding AG (SWX: BANB) and of Crucell N.V. (Euronext, NASDAQ: CRXL; SWX: CRX);. Virosomes are small spherical vesicles containing viral membrane proteins (fusion proteins of the influenza virus) embedded in lipid membranes. They can be loaded with almost any antigen of choice and represent Pevion Biotech's technology platform for the development of a new generation of safe and effective vaccines. Registered virosome-based vaccines against hepatitis A (Epaxal®) and influenza (Inflexal® V) have validated the excellent characteristics of virosomes as an adjuvant and carrier system. The two registered products are marketed in over 45 countries.