ICOS

ÉVRY-COURCOURONNES, France--( BUSINESS WIRE )--Abolis Biotechnologies, a company specializing in industrial solutions using microorganisms, today announced the closing of a €35 million financing round led by an international consortium of investors. This funding will fuel the company’s expansion into global markets and accelerate its research and development efforts to bring innovative biomanufacturing and microbiome solutions to the market. Key players supporting this strategic investment include industry leaders such as BOLD (L'Oréal's venture capital fund), Evonik Venture Capital as well as impact-focused funds including DeepTech & Climate Fonds (Germany), Clay Capital (Singapore), ICOS Capital (Netherlands), and the transatlantic investment firm Liberset. This funding will enable Abolis to scale its biomanufacturing operations, accelerate business development, develop its own line of products and expand the activities of Microbiome Studio, Abolis’ business unit dedicated to deciphering and engineering microbial ecosystems. “We are delighted to announce the successful closing of our fundraise with leading industrial partners and industry-focused investors. This strategic funding will fuel our continued growth trajectory, strengthening our position as a European leader in biomanufacturing and microbiome solutions,” declared Cyrille Pauthenier, CEO of Abolis Biotechnologies. The investment is accompanied by the signing of a new strategic industrial partnership between Abolis, L’Oréal and Evonik to bring selected innovations to market, for healthcare, cosmetic and chemical sectors. “We are delighted to strengthen L’Oréal’s collaboration with Abolis, which started in 2019, as a long-term partner of the Group at the forefront of sustainable biotechnology,” shared Samantha Etienne, CEO of BOLD, L’Oréal’s venture capital fund. “This investment highlights our belief in Abolis’ potential to create a more sustainable future across various industries, including beauty. We are looking forward to collaborating with the talented Abolis team to support their continued growth and success.” “Biotechnology as a lever for sustainable transformation is a key component of Evonik's growth strategy,” added Bernhard Mohr, Managing Director Evonik Venture Capital. “Abolis' competencies in strain development and metabolic engineering ideally complement the expertise of Evonik in fermentation processes, downstream processing and scale-up for commercial production. The strategic collaboration of our Business Line Care Solutions with Abolis and L’Oréal alongside our investment will facilitate the access to a wide range of markets, including cosmetics, nutrition and healthcare.” Beyond the industrial collaboration, this investment will enable Abolis to develop its own portfolio of innovative ingredients, which will be industrialized with partners. “Our investment in Abolis marks an important milestone — it's not only our first step into biotechnology but also our first venture outside of Germany. We’re proud to play an active role in bridging top-tier strategic and financial investors within this strong consortium, helping to accelerate the remarkable work that Cyrille and his team have built over the years,” acknowledged Tobias Faupel, Managing Director at DeepTech & Climate Fonds. “From the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries to food and agriculture, global commitments have been made by the largest brands to transition to biobased alternatives across their ingredient portfolios. Having monitored the synthetic biology sector for many years, it’s clear the appetite and commercial buying power is there. But landing on the right solution, at the right price and with the ability to do so at scale has been out of reach for most. Abolis has taken a different path, embedding their platform as a trusted first port of call for motivated industry partners across sectors. They have demonstrated traction with key players, developing biobased ingredients that will pay dividends for human and planetary health. We’re excited to support Abolis’ growth in Europe, and help them make in-roads into Asia, where we have strong networks and demand is strong”, detailed Matthieu Vermersch, co-founder of Clay Capital. "Abolis is already a major success story in European industrial biotech, with a strong track record of strategic and financial performance, and an impressive client base. Icos Capital is proud to be part of this growth financing round, which should propel Abolis to the next level. Icos Capital, along with its corporate partners such as Nouryon and Bühler, looks forward to supporting Abolis on their journey to becoming a global market leader in green ingredients, facilitating the sustainability transition of the industry”, said Peter van Gelderen, managing partner at Icos Capital. "This is a strategic investment for LIBERSET. We are very proud to support Abolis’ team as it expands across the Atlantic. This partnership illustrates our commitment to sustainable innovation and a greener future" , concluded Damien Bourel, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Liberset. Since its establishment in 2014, Abolis Biotechnologies previously raised €1.1 million and has since achieved significant growth through strategic partnerships with industry leaders. This new funding round enables Abolis Biotechnologies to enter a new phase of development by expanding its manufacturing platforms dedicated to serving its growing customer base. This expansion will involve the recruitment of talented professionals across all departments, in particular setting up an international Business Development team. About Abolis Biotechnologies Abolis is a French company delivering high-impact innovations in biotechnologies that supports industries in their transition to a more sustainable production model by building a better future in collaboration with Nature. Abolis provides tailor-made industrial solutions based on natural and modified micro-organisms. www.abolis.fr, www.microbiomestudio.com About BOLD BOLD, Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development, is the global corporate venture capital fund of L’Oréal. Since its creation in 2018, BOLD has explored the frontier of beauty via strategic minority investments in promising startups across the beauty value chain. Its investment portfolio includes emerging brands as well as innovative companies in the domains of technology and biotechnology. www.lorealboldventures.com About DeepTech & Climate Fonds The DeepTech & Climate Fund (DTCF) invests up to €30 million in high-growth deep-tech and climate-tech companies in Germany and Europe. As an anchor investor and partner of long-term-oriented European investors, DTCF supports companies with extended development cycles and substantial financial needs in implementing sustainable growth strategies and actively contributes to expanding the technology ecosystem. Funded by resources from the German Future Fund and the ERP Special Fund, DTCF plans to invest up to €1 billion over the coming years to strengthen the European technology ecosystem. www.dtcf.de About Evonik Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The company is active in more than 100 countries around the world and generated sales of €15.3 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of €1.66 billion in 2023. Evonik goes far beyond chemistry to create innovative, profitable, and sustainable solutions for customers. About 32,000 employees work together for a common purpose: We want to improve life today and tomorrow. www.evonik.com About Clay Capital Headquartered in Singapore, Clay Capital supports ambitious teams that are developing transformative solutions for a healthier, safer, and more regenerative agri-food system. Pioneers in making impactful investments in agrifood tech, Clay Capital is backed by significant institutional investors, including government-linked funds, supra-national entities, banks, insurance companies, and prominent families in the agrifood industry. www.claycapital.vc About ICOS Capital Icos Capital, based in the Netherlands, manages Climate Tech Venture Capital funds focused on accelerating sustainability through early growth stage investments in Europe and North America. The firm collaborates with leading corporations to foster industry decarbonization and sustainable transitions in Food Systems, Chemicals & Materials, Industry Digitization, and Carbon Technology. The investment in Abolis is made from Icos' fourth sustainability fund under management that was launched in January 2024. www.icoscapital.com About Liberset With offices in the U.S. and Europe, LIBERSET is a transatlantic investment company focused on the growth of innovative companies fostering the industrial transition to sustainable manufacturing and decarbonization. Our investor base involves family-owned groups, family offices, experienced CEOs and entrepreneurs from sectors including farming, food, cosmetics, chemistry, energy, logistics and construction. LIBERSET is deeply committed to accelerating the transatlantic expansion of our portfolio companies while fostering global sustainable value creation, supported by our robust community of investors. liberset.com

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 2017-- Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALPN), a leading immunotherapy company focused on developing treatments for autoimmune/inflammatory diseases and cancer, today announced immuno-oncology preclinical data characterizing the functional activity of molecules Alpine successfully generated from its variant immunoglobulin domain (vIgD) platform. Several novel immuno-oncology molecules were functionally active via multiple mechanisms of action, including the demonstration of tumor suppression in an animal model. The findings will be presented on Friday, November 10, in a poster session titled “Immune Modulation, Cytokines, and Antibodies” [#P343] at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s (SITC) 32nd Annual Meeting in National Harbor, MD. “Our unique vIgD platform is capable of producing first-in-class immuno-oncology biologics with potentially unique mechanisms of action,” said Stanford Peng, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer of Alpine. “This promising data highlights the versatility of the platform, showing vIgDs may be implemented in multiple therapeutic formats and may be tailored to modulate multiple molecular pathways according to the desired therapeutic application.” Preclinical Study Design and Results Alpine scientists used the vIgD directed evolution platform to engineer a number of vIgDs with unique binding profiles to proteins relevant to the immune synapse, including PD-1, PD-L1, CTLA-4, TIGIT, CD155, CD28, and/or ICOS. The poster describes the vIgD domains in multiple therapeutic formats, including tumor-localized Fc fusion proteins, multi-checkpoint inhibitors, and vIgDs fused with tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies (V-mAbs). Various in vitro and in vivo tests characterized the functional activity of these potentially novel therapeutics. Data include: Tri-specific vIgDs for treating cancer with a single domain capable of interacting with three different B7 family members. Depending on formatting, tri-specific vIgDs are potentiallycapable of agonizing CD28, blocking PD-L1, blocking CTLA-4, and/or depleting tumor cells and/or regulatory T cells. Initial formats investigated in an animal model of cancer demonstrated activity with tumor growth suppression.A dual ICOS/CD28 costimulatory vIgD fused with the HER2-targeting monoclonal antibody trastuzumab to provide immune stimulation in the tumor microenvironment. These V-mAbs demonstrated in vitroproof of principle for immune cell stimulation and proliferation in response to HER2-positive tumor cells.Multiple vIgD Fc fusions capable of targeting TIGIT and PD-1 while sparing CD226. These multi-checkpoint inhibitory molecules blocked checkpoint activity and improved IFN-γ production by “exhausted” T cells. “The SITC data suggest the versatile vIgD platform has the potential to contribute to the next generation of immuno-oncology therapeutics. Based on these and other encouraging preclinical data, we are continuing to identify and develop appropriate candidates from our vIgD platform for clinical trials for both oncology and inflammation,” said Mitchell H. Gold, M.D., Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alpine. About Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc. Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc. is focused on developing novel protein-based immunotherapies using its proprietary Variant Ig Domain (vIgD) platform technology. The vIgD platform is designed to interact with multiple targets, including many present in the immune synapse. Alpine’s vIgDs are developed using a process known as directed evolution, which produces proteins capable of either enhancing or diminishing an immune response and thereby may potentially apply therapeutically to cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Alpine has also developed Transmembrane Immunomodulatory Protein (TIP) technology, based on the vIgD platform, to potentially enhance engineered cellular therapies. For more information, visit www.alpineimmunesciences.com.

Checkpoint immunotherapy utilizing PD-1 blockade has become the standard of care for metastatic melanoma. While this treatment is effective in 40 percent of patients, the other 60 percent develop resistance, leading to tumor regrowth. A multidisciplinary research team has identified a new strategy that could enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of this therapy by targeting the communication between immune cells within the tumor. Checkpoint immunotherapy utilizing PD-1 blockade has become the standard of care for metastatic melanoma. While this treatment is effective in 40 percent of patients, the other 60 percent develop resistance, leading to tumor regrowth. A multidisciplinary research team led by the University of California, Irvine has identified a new strategy that could enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of this therapy by targeting the communication between immune cells within the tumor. In a study published online today in the journal Cancer Cell, researchers demonstrate that while PD-1 blockade activates a potent antitumor response in CD8+ T cells, it also promotes the accumulation of T regulatory cells, decreasing the immune response against the tumor. The activation of these competing signals -- one set combatting the tumor and the other restraining the immune system -- is likely a significant challenge in providing effective cancer treatment. "Our latest research reveals that CD8+ T cells, activated by PD-1 blockade to target melanoma, also interact with T regulatory cells, which subsequently dampen the immune response against the tumor," said corresponding author Francesco Marangoni, UC Irvine assistant professor of physiology & biophysics. "We analyzed the intricate dynamics of communication between CD8+ T and T regulatory cells, which are analogous to two telephone landlines connected by a cable. If we cut the cable, the CD8+ T cells won't be able to 'call' the T regulatory cells and instruct them to inhibit the immune response to the cancer." Team members focused on the mechanism of communication between CD8+ T and T regulatory cells in tumors and identified a pivotal role for a molecule called ICOS, which is required for T cell activation. They found that by neutralizing ICOS and PD-1, CD8+ T cells increased their activity against the tumor but could no longer stimulate T regulatory cells. "Our work helped identify a reason why some patients treated with checkpoint blockade develop resistance to it," said first author Shannon Geels, a UC Irvine graduate student researcher in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics. "We found that communication between cells can lead to immunotherapy failure and that we can improve efficacy by interrupting specific messages exchanged by immune cells." The next phase of this research involves understanding the complex communication network among various cell types in a tumor. "We do not think there is only one 'phone cable' to cut," Marangoni said. "Our findings provide a promising pathway to increasing our understanding of communication among all cell types within a tumor. This will enable us to identify the messages that block the full potential of CD8+ T cells stimulated by PD-1 blockade so that we can maximize the benefit to patients." Other UC Irvine team members included faculty and graduate students from the physiology & biophysics, biological chemistry, dermatology and developmental & cell biology departments; the Institute for Immunology; the Center for Complex Biological Systems; and the NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research; as well as faculty from Saint John's Cancer Institute in Santa Monica; the University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. This work was supported by pilot grants from the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health, among others.