Published in the newspaper EXPANSIÓN 08-03-2022 Oncomatryx, a Vizcaino biotechnology company, has carried out a 15 million euro capital increase to start clinical trials with people with invasive tumors in Spain and the USA.
Oncomatryx raises capital by 15 million to conduct clinical trials against metastatic tumors
Oncomatryx, a Vizcaya-based biotechnology company, has carried out a capital increase of 15 million euros to begin clinical trials with people suffering from invasive tumors in Spain and the United States. In this way, after 12 years of research, the company is embarking on a new phase in the development of its pioneering drugs against metastatic solid tumors.
Current shareholders have contributed to the capital increase, including BBK and the investment company Ekarpen – which includes the participation of Kutxabank, the Basque government, the three Basque regional parliaments and Mondragon Inversiones –, as well as national and international family offices.
The capital expansion funds, together with the recurring revenues from Oncomatryx stemming from its license agreements with major international biopharmaceutical companies, will also be allocated to the clinical development of new drugs (conjugated antibodies) from Oncomatryx's pipeline against the tumor microenvironment. The total investment in R&D for the 2022-2024 triennium will be 50 million Euros.
Start of trials in 2022
Its next-generation drug OMTX705, which targets the tumor microenvironment—the cells surrounding the tumor that favor its immunosuppression, invasion, and metastasis—has already shown great efficacy and safety in animal models.
Therefore, Oncomatryx will begin clinical trials in Phase I in people before the end of 2022.
The pioneering work of the biotechnology company focuses on the development of personalized biopharmaceutical drugs against the tumor microenvironment, to treat the invasive stages of cancer, which still have a high mortality rate.
Oncomatryx, located in the Bizkaia Technology Park, has discovered new mechanisms and proteins in the peritumoral stroma, the cells and extracellular matrix that surround the tumor and facilitate its invasiveness, immunosuppression, resistance to treatment, and metastasis.
International collaborations
Oncomatryx has addressed the development of pioneering drugs against these mechanisms and peritumoral stromal proteins, in collaboration with prestigious universities, hospitals, and research centers in the USA and Europe.
Among them are Harvard University, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Stuttgart, the University of Turin, the University of Bologna, CIC-Biogune, the National Center for Oncological Research, Onkologikoa, the Virgen del Rocío Hospital, the Sant Joan de Deu Hospital, and the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital.
In January 2019, Oncomatryx also closed an €9 million capital increase driven by companies such as Ekarpen, BBK and Basque and Galician family offices.