The Munich startup Tubules raised 10.7 million euros in a Series A financing round. The financing round was jointly led by Biomedpartners and the High-Tech Founders Fund (HTGF). Also involved are Seventure Partners, Coparion, Bavaria Capital and Occident, a business angel and several private individuals around the founding team.
Tubulis aims to improve cancer treatment
The Munich-based biotech company aims to address challenges in cancer treatment, among other thingsCancer, for example, is often treated with chemotherapy. This involves the use of toxic substances that effectively combat cancer cells but can also damage healthy tissue. To reduce the resulting severe side effects, modern treatments aim to transport the active ingredients in the body to the tumor cells. The active ingredient is linked to an antibody that can distinguish cancer cells from healthy tissue. However, these antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are currently very unstable and lose large amounts of the active ingredients before they reach the tumor cell.
This is precisely where Tubulis comes in, addressing these and similar challenges in the treatment of various diseases. Founded in 2019 as a spin-off of the Leibniz Research Institute Berlin (FMP) and Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), the company develops novel technologies that enable the production of particularly stable ADCs. These compounds enable the targeted delivery of substances to the tissue affected by a disease. In the case of cancer, Tubulis thus enables the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents, for example, to cancer cells without releasing large amounts of toxic substances into healthy tissue. Tubulis' solutions can reduce the amount of toxic substances and improve efficiency and side effect profiles.
More targeted and gentle therapies
Tubulis now intends to use this funding to further advance the development of a new class of stable and effective ADCs.
“Tubulis' goal is to use our technology platforms to develop ADCs perfectly tailored to the respective disease,”
says Dominik Schumacher, CEO and one of the founders of Tubulis.
"Funding from such an experienced consortium further validates our technology and reflects the current renaissance the ADC field is experiencing. The capital we have raised will enable us to further advance the platforms and advance our first two selected ADC candidates toward the clinic."
The versatile ADC portfolio consists of two proprietary technologies. These technologies are based on results from the research groups led by Tubulis co-founders Christian Hackenberger, Heinrich Leonhardt, and Jonas Helma-Smets.
“We look forward to supporting the Tubulis team in building their business in this rapidly growing area that urgently needs innovative solutions,”
says Michael Wacker, partner at the investor BiomedpartnersMedtech and biotech companies in particular need a lot of capital to be able to cover the long road from the laboratory idea to the approval of a drug, says Georg Ried, Managing Director of Bayern Kapital. reed says:
"Tubulis has convinced us with its innovative treatment solution, which could provide many patients around the world with more targeted, efficient, and, above all, gentler forms of therapy. Therefore, we see great growth potential for Tubulis."
During the spin-off phase, the company has already received several startup awards, such as the “Outstanding Start-up Award” from Venturemed 2019, the “Leibniz Entrepreneurship Award” and the recognition as an official “EIT Health Success Story”.
