Australian cancer drug developer raises $10m Series B round

Several other new and existing US investors participated, including Foley Ventures and various partners at law firm Foley & Lardner. As part of the transaction, Anjan Chatterji, director of healthcare economics at Foley & Lardner, will join EnGeneIC. He will be based in the company's newly-established New York office.

Founded in 2001 in Sydney, EnGeneIC has developed a technology platform that delivers therapeutic agents to cancer cells, which allows greater customization of treatments, minimizing the side-effects commonly associated with chemotherapy. The technology relies on antibody-targeted, bacterially derived, non-living "nanocells" to release high concentrations of drugs directly into tumor cells.

The new injection of capital will be used to support clinical development of the platform, with clinical trials involving brain tumor patients are expected to begin in mid-2015 in conjunction with hospitals in the US and Australia. Patients are already being enrolled for clinical trials in Australia that focus on cancers affecting the lungs and other internal organs.

Eight patent family applications have been filed in the US and worldwide and patents covering aspects of EnGeneIC's technology have been granted in Australia, the US, Singapore, Japan, China, Mexico, New Zealand, Hong Kong and India.

"We believe EnGeneIC's novel delivery technology can play an important role in changing the treatment paradigm for highly cytotoxic chemotherapy and functional nucleic acids, as well as improve outcomes by engaging the immune system to target tumors," Timothy Krochuk, co-founder and portfolio managers at GRT Capital Partners, said in a statement.

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