Dortmund, Germany, April 29th, 2021 – UGISense AG announced the closing of its Series B financing round today. UGISense AG is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing a new innovative type of antisense drugs that solve the challenges and limitations of this technology.
Antisense drugs interact via the genetic code in a specific manner with RNA. By this mode of action disease-relevant proteins will be blocked or modified in a specific way. This allows a therapeutic intervention at a very early stage of the respective disease and to treat diseases even when they are not accessible to small molecules or antibodies.
All existing main investors participated in this financing, including Lead Discovery Center and SeedCapital II.
Dr. Birgit Werner and Dr. Thomas Lindhorst, Managing Directors of UGISense said, “This financing round recognizes the exciting progress our company has made, especially in oncology, and we look forward to further developing our program in this field into pre-clinical and clinical phases. The proceeds of the financing will also support the continued development of the existing Ugimer™ programs and the further growth of the business.”
“UGISense has executed on its ambitious business strategy to document the broad applicability of Ugimers™, especially in oncology but also in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Charcot Marie Tooth 1A and NASH to fulfil the antisense drugs’ promise of our technology,” said Dr. Nicole Wistuba, Chairman of the UGISense Board. “We greatly value the continued support of our strong investor base towards the further development of UGISense.”
The funding follows the Series A financing announced in June 2018. The previous financing has enabled UGISense to develop and expand the proprietary Ugimer™ antisense technology and prove the broad applicability of Ugimers™ in different indications with high unmet medical need.
In both financing rounds, UGISense AG was advised by the law firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek.
About UGISense AG
UGISense AG is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing a new innovative type of antisense drugs. The developments are made on the basis of a proprietary platform technology, the UgimersTM. The company is financed by private investors, the Lead Discovery Center Dortmund GmbH and Seed Capital II GmbH, and has been accredited by the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) (within the scope of their Venture Capital Grants program).
About UgimersTM
UgimersTM are short peptidic oligonucleotide sequences capable of interacting with RNA by forming a double strand. Due to said double-strand formation, disease-relevant proteins will be specifically prevented from forming at all or will be reduced to only a modified stage. This mechanism achieves a therapeutic influence on diseases at a very early stage of intervention. Structurally, UgimersTM are derived from peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) to which important pharmacological functions have been added by way of chemical modifications.
For closer detail visit www.ugisense.com
Contact
E.: contact@ugisense.com
T.: +49 231 9742 70063
About SeedCapital II
SeedCapital Dortmund II GmbH & Co. KG participates in young, innovative companies in the Dortmund region. The group of partners comprises the Sparkasse Dortmund and the NRW.BANK as well as private investors. Together with financing partners, the fund provides participation capital in a seven-digit range. Cooperation partners include the locally based competence centres, such as the Technologiezentrum Dortmund, the BioMedizinZentrum, the MST.factory as well as the Centre of Production Technology (ZfP Dortmund).
Contact
E.: info@seed-do.de
T.: +49 231 183-31412
About Lead Discovery Center
Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC) was established in 2008 by the technology transfer organization Max Planck Innovation, as a novel approach to capitalize on the potential of excellent basic research for the discovery of new therapies for diseases with high medical need. The LDC takes on promising early-stage projects from academia and transforms them into innovative pharmaceutical leads and antibodies that reach initial proof-of-concept in animals as well as candidate nomination. In close collaboration with high-profile partners from research and industry, the LDC is building a strong and growing portfolio of small molecule and antibody leads with exceptional medical and commercial potential. LDC sustains a long-term partnership with the Max Planck Society, KHAN-I GmbH & Co.KG and has formed alliances with AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck KGaA, Daiichi Sankyo, Qurient, Roche, Apeiron, e.g. In addition, LDC also works with leading translational drug discovery centers and with various investors to provide its assets for company creation. Further information at: www.lead-discovery.de.
Contact
E.: pr@lead-discovery.de
T.: +49 231 9742 7000