Accession Therapeutics raises £25m to fund company through generation of first clinical data & to advance second candidate

 Firm led by immunotherapy pioneer Bent Jakobsen has now raised over £50m since inception

Oxford, UK, April 25 2024 – Accession Therapeutics Limited, which is developing novel, first-in-class immunotherapies targeted at tumour sites and administered systemically to provide a step-change in cancer treatment, has raised £25m. This will fund it through the generation of the first clinical data for its lead product TROCEPT-01. The financing, which will also advance its second programme to clinical trial readiness, brings the total funds committed to Accession Therapeutics in the 30 months since operations started to over £50 million. TROCEPT-01 will be the first product generated by Accession Therapeutics’ TROCEPT platform to enter the clinic. The platform is highly tuneable with the ability to administer a variety of potent anti-cancer transgene payloads specifically to tumours.

As well as providing clinical proof-of-concept of the TROCEPT platform, the proceeds of the fundraising round will enable manufacture of clinical trial material and completion of IND-enabling studies for the next programme, leveraging the efficiencies and experience gained from TROCEPT-01. The internal early-stage pipeline will also be progressed.

Attracted by TROCEPT’s potential to create the ideal immunotherapy, the fundraising round was led by serial backers of CEO Professor Bent Jakobsen’s research-to-clinic leadership. He is a serial entrepreneur in the immunotherapy space and has founded public biotech companies.

Lead product TROCEPT-01 encodes a clinically validated immune checkpoint inhibitor as the payload that will be produced and secreted by cancer cells. It has the potential to expand the indications where checkpoint inhibitors have been successful and increase cancer response rates through high tumour-localised production of the drug where it is needed. It has shown very encouraging data in its IND-enabling studies. TROCEPT-01 is expected to enter the clinic in 2024 for multiple significant solid tumour indications (such as non-small cell lung, bladder, head and neck, and pancreatic cancers). The second TROCEPT programme, which encodes an extremely potent universal bispecific immune activator, is expected to start clinical trials a year later.

Bent Jakobsen, PhD FMedSci, CEO of Accession Therapeutics, said, ‘We’re delighted that our swift evolution into a clinical stage company is being financed by our long-term investors.  Accession Therapeutics thanks them for their support which will enable us to demonstrate the huge clinical and commercial potential of the TROCEPT platform via our first clinical data.’

--ENDS—

For more information, please contact

Emma Palmer Foster, Communications

comms@accessiontherapeutics.com

Tel +44 (0) 7880 787185

About Accession Therapeutics Limited

Accession Therapeutics Limited is based in Oxford, UK. Its platform technology, TROCEPT, is delivering a proprietary internal pipeline for Accession Therapeutics with significant innovation opportunities available for partnering. Products from the platform are expected to have strong clinical and commercial potential, convenient intravenous administration for better patient access and compliance, and a competitive cost of goods sold via an established manufacturing route. The potential of TROCEPT is illustrated in the animation here. 

Accession Therapeutics has raised over £50m to date backed by high net worth individuals, iGlobe Partners, Primavera Venture Partners, Birk Venture and other international biotech investors. It is based at ARC Oxford in the UK. www.accessiontherapeutics.com