Munich Biotech Hub Closed Deals Worth Over €220 Million in 2022

The Munich Biotech Hub looks back on a successful 2022. In total, the biotech startups were able to close transactions worth more than €220 million. Accordingly, the Managing Director of the Biotechnology Innovation and Start-up Center, Dr. Peter Hanns Zobel, is proud: “The start-ups with us at the IZB are working to develop groundbreaking technologies and bring them to market. I am particularly pleased that this cutting-edge research is attracting enormous interest from life science investors, who have supported the companies with the financing of a good €220 million in 2022.”

Advioa, for example, announced a €2.5 million grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator in October. The company is engaged in research into species-specific therapeutic antibodies for companion animals. The grant will be used to accelerate the development of the company’s proprietary antibody program, which addresses the growing need for novel therapeutic options for dogs with inflammatory bowel disease.

Catalym, a pioneer in GDF-15 targeting immuno-oncology, completed the closing of a €50 million Series C financing round in November. The round was led by new investors Brandon Capital and Jeito Capital, with participation from existing investors Forbion, Novartis Venture Fund, Vesalius Biocapital III, Bayern Kapital, BioGeneration Ventures, and Coparion. The financing is intended to advance the further clinical development of the lead candidate, visugromab. The monoclonal antibody is currently being investigated in a phase II trial in patients with solid tumors.

In addition, IZB alumnus Immunic Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of selective, orally available immunology therapies for the treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, secured a so-called PIPE (private investment in public equity) financing of $60 million (approximately €55.7 million) in October 2022. The financing was underwritten by a consortium of new and existing institutional investors and is intended to secure the ongoing clinical development of the company’s three lead product candidates.

IZB Campus is an attractive location – not only for startups

In the second half of 2022, the IZB welcomed several new companies to the campus. In October, for example, two companies opened offices at the incubator. The life sciences team of VC investor Andera Partners thus now has another location in addition to Paris. The international team has been active since 2000 and has extensive experience in private equity and venture capital. To date, it has raised more than €1.1 billion through its BioDiscovery fund family and invested in more than 75 European and US biotech and medtech companies.

Furthermore, the Northern European consulting firm Klifo also opened a satellite office in the IZB to be physically closer to its clients. Klifo provides strategic consulting and operational services in all areas of drug and medical device development and has over 25 years of experience working with international companies in the biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries.

Atriva Therapeutics, another company, moved into the IZB in November. Atriva is pursuing a novel approach to combating known and emerging viral respiratory infectious diseases such as covid-19 and influenza, using host cell proteins rather than the virus as targets for therapy. Atriva’s lead product, zapnometinib (ATR-002), is a first-in-class compound that interferes with signaling pathways in the host cell, inhibiting viral replication and favorably affecting the body’s immune response to RNA viruses. Atriva has additional sites in Tübingen and Frankfurt am Main.

Shortly before the end of the year, the IZB welcomed another startup, T-Curx. The biotech spin-off from the University of Würzburg develops personalized immunotherapies based on next-generation CAR-T cells for cancer indications with high medical needs. At the heart of T-Curx’s CAR-T technologies is a novel Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon gene transfer technology, for which the start-up holds exclusive licensing rights. The company is headquartered in the Würzburg Innovation and Start-up Center.

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