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Forbion Capital Partners. (9/16/21). "Press Release: Forbion Launches Portfolio Company Oxitope Pharma Focused on Inflammatory, Cardiovascular and Fibrotic Diseases". Naarden.

Organisations Organisation Forbion Capital Partners (NL)
  Group Forbion (Group)
  Organisation 2 University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
  Group University of California (System)
Products Product therapeutic antibody
  Product 2 venture capital
Index term Index term Oxitope Pharma–Forbion: investment, 202003– seed investment by founding investor Forbion
Persons Person Montana, John (Oxitope Pharma 202109– CEO joined as COO 4/20 also Operating Partner at Forbion before Charles River)
  Person 2 Boorsma, Marco (Forbion Capital Partners 201302)
     


Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announces a new company in its portfolio, Oxitope Pharma B.V. (‘Oxitope’ or ‘the Company’). Forbion founded Oxitope based on the potential of high-quality science from University of California San Diego (UCFD), which led to the company’s formation, seed financing and with Forbion Operating Partner John Montana taking on the role of CEO.

Founded in March 2020, Oxitope now emerges from stealth mode, unveiling its focus on Oxidation Specific Epitopes (OSEs) as new targets for drug discovery. Oxidative stress is known to induce the formation of OSEs, which are key drivers of unhealthy ageing and play a key role in inflammatory, cardiovascular and fibrotic diseases and are a primary source of morbidity and mortality.

Oxitope’s technology is based on the seminal work of its co-founders, Profs. Joe Witztum and Sam Tsimikas at University of California San Diego, using research spanning over 40 years, and has been published in a range of high-profile scientific papers. The company is committed to enabling people to live longer and healthier lives by treating diseases driven by oxidative stress, with a goal of pioneering a portfolio of first-in-class advanced antibody-based therapies targeting OSEs, to treat a range of cardiovascular, inflammatory and fibrotic indications.

The seed financing provided by Forbion will allow Oxitope to further validate the relevance of therapeutically targeting OSEs in a range of preclinical models of acute and chronic cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and to nominate candidate antibodies for clinical development.

Marco Boorsma, General Partner at Forbion, and Chairman of Oxitope’s Board of Directors commented, “Oxitope underscores Forbion’s strategy of identifying cutting-edge science with large therapeutic potential, and backing companies from inception by providing the capital and expertise needed to bring new therapies forward that have the potential to positively impact the health and well-being of patients.”

Forbion Operating Partner and new CEO of Oxitope John Montana added: “I was impressed and intrigued by the four decades of research behind OSEs as targets for therapeutic intervention and therefore look forward to continue working with Oxitope’s founders to leverage their knowledge and scientific network. At the same time, we are expanding the Oxitope team to accelerate this exciting new therapeutic approach to treating the underlying inflammation and fibrotic activity underpinning a range of oxidative stress induced diseases. ”

Professors Joe Witztum and Sam Tsimikas of UCSD will remain as members of the Oxitope Board and as scientific advisor and Chief Scientific Officer, respectively. Also joining the Oxitope Board are Forbion General Partners Marco Boorsma and Vincent van Houten, and Forbion Operating Partner Prof. John Kastelein.


ENDS


For more information please contact:

Media Enquiries
Laura Asbjornsen, Head of Communications
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +31 (0) 35 699 30 00

Consilium Strategic Communications
Ashley Tapp, Sue Charles
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 3709 5700


About Forbion

Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Singapore. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the (bio-) pharmaceutical space. Forbion manages well over EUR 1.7 billion across multiple fund strategies that cover all stages of (bio-) pharmaceutical drug development. Forbion’s current team consists of 20 life sciences investment professionals that have built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in over 70 companies. The firm is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Besides financial objectives, Forbion selects investments that will positively affect the health and well-being of patients. Its investors include the EIF, through its European Recovery Programme (ERP), LfA, Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI), AMUF and EFSI facilities and KfW Capital through the Programme, “ERP – Venture Capital Fonds investments”. Forbion operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early-stage funds, especially focused on Benelux and Germany.

For more information, please visit: www.forbion.com

   
Record changed: 2024-12-22

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