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Epigenomics completes Euro 28m financing and establishes its supervisory and scientific advisory boards
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| Date: Tuesday, 14.11.2000 |
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| Press release, Berlin, Germany |
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Epigenomics, a biotechnology company focused on the personalized medicine applications of DNA methylation, today announced the completion of a second round financing totalling Euro 28 million. Participants in this round include existing investors such as Deutsch Venture Capital Gessellschaft (DVCG) and a number of new investors from the international investment community including MPM Asset Management, (Cambridge, USA), 3i, (London, UK) and Abingworth Management (London, UK).
Epigenomics will apply these funds to the following areas:
· General corporate expansion based on achieving proof of concept
· Rapid expansion into the US market - full scale operations in the US expected in the first half of 2001
· Extend and solidify the Intellectual Property portfolio
· Potential entry into additional market area of target finding/validation based on DNA
methylation
"The success of our latest financing round demonstrates the confidence in our technologies and business vision for the future from both existing and new investors," stated Oliver Schacht, PhD, CFO of Epigenomics AG. "Since our initial financing, Epigenomics has made rapid progress towards our aim of being the global leader in epi-genomic biotechnology."
Epigenomics has achieved proof of concept in using proprietary technology to differentiate between healthy and diseased (cancerous) tissue samples based on DNA methylation patterns. Data generated to date using Epigenomics’ technology demonstrates a sensitivity, reliability and robustness much greater than that offered by current mRNA expression typing methodologies. Based on this proof of concept and the second round financing, Epigenomics has established a second facility in Berlin containing 12,500 square feet of laboratory and office space. These new laboratories will house high throughput/industrial scale epi-genotyping of tissue samples and ongoing programs for various cancers thus aiding the plans for further Intellectual Property generation.
Concurrently with this financing, Epigenomics has appointed members to its supervisory and scientific advisory boards. The supervisory board members are Dr. Jörg Neermann, DVCG, Dr. Michael Steinmetz, MPM Asset Manangement and John Berriman, Abingworth.
Dr. Jörg Neermann, Partner, DVCG, has been investment manager with the company since 1998. Previously he worked in Life Sciences (healthcare, biotechnology, and medicine technology) with Atlas Venture. Dr. Neermann studied biotechnology and business sciences in Braunschweig and at M.I.T. (USA) and while there was involved in the promotion of biotechnology in a strategic consultancy.
Dr. Michael Steinmetz, General Partner, BioVentures funds, MPM Asset Management, joined the company in 1997 from Hoffmann-La Roche. Over his decade with Hoffmann-La Roche, Dr. Steinmetz headed the company\'s Biology Department in Basel and the Biotechnology Research Department, the Preclinical Research Department and the Preclinical Research and Development Department in Nutley, New Jersey. As Vice President of Preclinical Research and Development at Roche, Dr. Steinmetz directed the research efforts of over 800 scientists focused on chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, oncology, obesity and diabetes. Multiple drug candidates including recombinant proteins, antibodies and small molecules were discovered under his leadership and moved into clinical trials. Dr. Steinmetz also conceptualized and managed many of Roche\'s research-stage alliances including the company\'s first investment in genomics. Dr. Steinmetz obtained his doctoral degree at the University of Munich and held positions at the California Institute of Technology and the Basel Institute for Immunology prior to joining F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Switzerland.
John Berriman, Abingworth Management was previously on the Board of Celltech Group. Whilst at Celltech, he founded Celltech Biologics and became the Business Director of Celltech Therapeutics. He is an advisor to several biotech companies in Europe and the US. Mr. Berriman holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the London Business School.
Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h. c. Rolf Krebs is an executive member of the board for Boehringer Ingelheim since 1989 and is due to assume the role of CEO in January 2001. He is a professor in pharmacology and toxicology and worked for Bayer AG for 12 years before becoming Vice General Director of Bayer Italia S.p.A. From 1996-1998 Prof. Krebs spent two years as President of the Euorpean Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations in Brussels. In 2000, he was elected as President of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.
The new Scientific Advisory Board consists of Dr. Stephan Beck, Sanger Centre, Dr. Jörg Hoheisel, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum and Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Dr. Stephan Beck is Head of Human DNA Sequencing at the renowned Sanger Centre in Hinxton, UK with particular interest in genome function and evolution. Prior to joining the Sanger Centre he headed a research laboratory at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London. Dr Beck studied Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the University of Konstanz, Germany followed by postdoctoral research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK and Millipore Corporation, a biotechnology company in Dedford, MA, USA. He is an elected member of the Human Genome Mapping Committee and has been a Fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.
Dr. Jörg Hoheisel is Head of the Functional Genome Analysis division at the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ) in Germany. Previously he has worked as a research scientist with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London (ICRF).
Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and also Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. Educated in Germany at the University of Munich he went on to hold fellowships at the Max Planck Institute, Princeton University, USA and the The Salk Institute among others. Prior to his current posts he was Head of the Department of Tumor Virology at Hamburg University, Germany. He is an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. His current research is dedicated to cancer, cloning and DNA methylation.
"We are delighted to announce initial appointments to our new supervisory and scientific advisory boards. The knowledge and experience of these individuals will greatly influence the continued succes of Epigenomics," Dr. Olek commented. "We are honored that such leading figures in the financial investment community and highly esteemed international scientific authorities have agreed to play an advisory role with us. "
Epigenomics is creating an integrated genomics-based technology with the potential to revolutionize the development of personalized medicines. By detecting and interpreting DNA methylation patterns (5th BASE Genomics®) in different cells of the same person, Epigenomics has uncovered a new layer of biological information that will enable a more complete and clearer detection of complex disease. These DNA methylation signals, comparable to a genetic switch, can be digitized to create a Digital Phenotype® that reflects the genetic activity of a particular cell, i.e., whether the cell is healthy or sick. Epigenomics’ sophisticated machine learning methods extract valuable information from these extremely high dimensional data to form the basis of a diagnostic component of personalized medicines. In December 1999, Epigenomics established the Human Epigenome Consortium with the Sanger Centre (UK), Centre National de Génotypage (France), German Cancer Research Centre, Technical University of Berlin and the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics (Germany) to reveal the entire epigenetic information content of the human genome. Based in Berlin, Germany, Epigenomics currently employs a team of 50. For additional information , please visit our web site at www.epigenomics.com.
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