The Belgian-British biotech company Apitope, which started as a spin-off of the Hasselt University in Diepenbeek, gets 12 million euros from an investor in Wales. It concerns the Wales Life Sciences Fund, which became a shareholder of Apitope during the capital increase.
The current shareholders of Apitope also participated in the financing round, including investment funds like Vesalius Biocapital, LRM and PMV. It is unclear how much they invested.
Apitope works on treatments for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Graves’ disease (thyroid), Factor VIII intolerance (bleeding disorder or hemophilia), and unveitis (eye inflammation). The MS research is the most advanced, but was licensed in 2009 to Merck Serono. Apitope will possibly receive a part of the turnover of the MS product.
Apitope will deploy the extra budget to further develop the treatments for Graves’ disease and Factor VIII intolerance. The latter product recently received recognition as an orphan drug for hemophilia. Apitope assumes that it gains access to a market of 3.5 billion euros
