Cologne, Germany, November 03, 2009 / b3c newswire / - CEVEC Pharmaceuticals, specializing in the development of complex therapeutic proteins based on the human CAP® Technology, today announced the closing of a €4M financing round. Creathor Venture Fonds and NRW.BANK led this round which included the participation from current investors and a group of private and institutional investors including the venture capital branch of Sparkasse KoelnBonn , and ERP Startfonds of KfW bank, both Germany. The funding provides CEVEC with adequate means to continue the global commercialization of the proprietary CAP® Technology platform.
The CAP® Technology platform comprises human CAP® and CAP-T™ expression systems and is used for the manufacture of complex biologics and therapeutic antibodies with human-like glycosylation and sialylation patterns. Starting with transient protein expression using CAP-T™ up to stable expression using CAP® cells, the CAP® Technology is applicable from initial research ideas up to GMP-compliant manufacturing of clinical samples and market supplies.
Dr. Rainer Lichtenberger, CEO of CEVEC comments: “We are delighted to have with Creathor Venture and NRW.BANK two first-class investors on board who value the unique strengths of the CAP® Technology and provide the resources required to finance the company’s ambitious growth objectives.”
Wolfgang Kintzel, CCO of CEVEC states: “The global market launch of CAP® und CAP-T™ in Europe, Asia/Pacific and the U.S. was very successful. This impressive success in such a short time marks a milestone in our goal to become the leading cell line supplier for protein production with human cell expression systems.”
Gangolf Ehlen, President of CEVEC’s supervisory board and previous lead investor concludes: “The overwhelming market success of the CAP® Technology after three years of hard work made the novel financing round a logic step which is all the more meaningful as we are in a difficult economic environment.”
Karlheinz Schmelig, Managing Director at Creathor Venture Management GmbH and Aristotelis Nastos, NRW.BANK, comment: “The global protein production market is ready for a high performance human expression system. CEVEC has a very strong R&D as well as management team and will accelerate to strengthen it´s global marketing & sales presence.”
About CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH - www.cevec-pharmaceuticals.com
CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH, operational since 2004 and located in Cologne, Germany, is a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in developing and producing therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies with human glycosylation patterns. CEVEC’s novel proprietary and patent-protected human CAP™ and CAP-T expression systems are ideal for manufacturing complex biopharmaceutical molecules. CEVEC is licensing out its human cell-based expression platform as well as the biological product candidates in internal development through partnerships with renowned pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
About Creathor Venture - www.creathor.de
CREATHOR VENTURE invests in technology-oriented companies and entrepreneurs from the fields of life science, IT, telecommunication, new media, new materials, electronics, nanotechnology and clean tech.
CREATHOR VENTURE’s management team includes Dr. Gert Köhler, the founder of the former Technologieholding VC GmbH, as well as Ingo Franz and Karlheinz Schmelig. The team has been working in early-stage venture capital for 20 years. During that time more than 200 technology companies have been financed and over 20 IPOs as well as numerous trade sales have been conducted.
Extraordinarily successful companies that the partners have managed from the first round of financing to IPO include Micronas (SMI), SEZ (SMI), Intershop (Prime Segment), Infovista (NASDAQ, Nouveau Marché) and ITN Nanovation (Prime Segment).
About NRW.BANK - www.nrwbank.de
NRW.BANK operates as a state development bank of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It offers various lending tools, including funding aids provided under the development programs of the federal state, the federal government, and the EU to equity and debt financing. The company provides education financing, which include products for financing training and further education; and tuition fee loans. It also offers public promotion and equity finance products to small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, NRW.BANK processes infrastructure funding products of the state of North-Rhine Westphalia and the German federal government; provides local authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia with advice, structuring, and customized funding products for interest rate and cash management; structures and finances public private partnerships, and participates in structured loans; and offers equity products for the public sector. Further, it executes the housing programs of KfW Forderbank, Germany’s federal development bank. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany
About Sparkasse KoelnBonn - www.sparkasse-koelnbonn.de
Sparkasse KoelnBonn is the largest communal savings bank under public law in Germany. Besides a full range of banking services to retail and corporate customers they also offer equity solutions: private equity and Mezzanine for established midsize companies and venture capital for innovative high-growth companies. The venture capital investments of Sparkasse KoelnBonn are always realized together with other investors well versed in the particular industry and are concentrated on the area around the two cities Cologne and Bonn. RTZ Cologne, a startup center, where Cevec Pharmaceuticals has its location, is also part of their portfolio.
Contact:
Wolfgang Kintzel
Chief Commercial Officer / Geschäftsführer
CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH
Gottfried-Hagen Straße 62
D-51105 Köln
Germany
fon +49 (0) 221-46 02 08 - 00
fax +49 (0) 221-46 02 08 - 01
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.