Funds raised for T cell research

Related tags Oncology Cancer

Danish biotech company T-cellic has just completed its second round
of financing, raising DK 40 million (€5.4m) in a deal that will set
the company up to take its T cell-based technologies, used for both
the localisation and treatment of cancer, into the clinic.

Danish biotech company T-cellic has just completed its second round of financing, raising DK 40 million (€5.4m) in a deal that will set the company up to take its T-cell-based technologies into the clinic.

Elsebeth Budolfsen, managing director of T-cellic, said that the fund-raising has provided enough capital to proceed to clinical studies in 2005.

"Our technology combines therapy and localisation in a concept which is unique,"​ she said. Using the approach, a patient's own T cells are used as specific transporters for an active drug, something that provides much more sophisticated targeting than conventional drug delivery techniques.

T-cellic has a particular interest in developing the T cell technology for oncology applications. "T-cell-guided Therapy opens perspectives for a major improvement in the treatment of cancer. This concept has the potential to become a much more targeted and effective therapy than existing treatments, due to a dramatically improved relation between effect and side effects,"​ said Budolfsen.

The company has already shown that activated T cells carrying a radiolabel or other imaging agents can provide very effective imaging of tumour masses in vivo​, suggesting applications in diagnosing and estimating the staging of cancers.

In collaboration with researchers from århus University in Denmark, T-cellic has already demonstrated that this technology enables them to identify and locate tumours which are significantly smaller than is possible with present diagnostic methods.

Meanwhile, it is a short leap from using T cells to deliver an imaging agent to their application to deliver therapeutic compounds. When injected into the patient, it is expected that the activated T cells will migrate to the site of the tumour and release their cytotoxic payload locally, thereby reducing the side effects associated with systemic treatment regimens.

T-cellic​ hopes to develop and introduce a range of cancer therapeutics based on the localisation technology, including T cells linked to cytostatic drugs, radioisotopes and light-activated photosensitisers for photodynamic therapy.

"The results with T-cellic are unprecedented, and we believe this technology will become epoch-making within the treatment of cancer,"​ commented Henrik Lawaetz, founding partner of Scandinavian Life Science Venture (SLS) one of the investors involved in the latest financing round.

Related topics Preclinical Research