BT Pharma changes its name to Genticel and secures EUR 13.1M (USD 17.7M) in capital funding

Toulouse, France, March 9th 2010 -- BT Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative immunotherapies to prevent cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), announces that it has raised 13.1 million Euro in additional funding and changed its name to Genticel. AGF Private Equity led the round, which brought in three new investors, IRDI (Institut Régional de Développement Industriel), Amundi Private Equity Funds and InnoBio fund, managed by CDC Entreprises, within FSI France Investment program. Previous investors, including Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP), also took part.
To best leverage its unique and broadly applicable therapeutic vaccine platform, Adenylate Cyclase (CyaA), Genticel will focus its efforts on the prevention of cervical cancer in HPV infected women. A phase I clinical trial of Genticel’s lead therapeutic HPV vaccine, ProCervix, is scheduled for the second quarter of 2010. This bivalent product, which carries antigens originating from both HPV16 and HPV18, should offer a curative vaccine solution that will complement current prophylactic vaccines...

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...About Genticel S.A.

Genticel is a bio-pharmaceutical company that started as a spin out of the Institut Pasteur and was called BT Pharma until the 26th of February 2010. The company is currently based in Labège, on the outskirts of Toulouse, France. The company, which employs 21 people, focuses exclusively on the development of immunotherapeutic products aimed at preventing cancers caused by Human Papillomavirus (HPV)... [PDF] Genticel's Press Release - PDF du communiqué de presse de Genticel -

BT PHARMA, development of therapeutic cancer vaccines with the Institut Pasteur

Toulouse, 11 January 2008 - The Institut Pasteur has agreed to add a new patent under the exclusive license granted to BT PHARMA with regards to the Adenylate Cyclase vector technology. This patent has been filed in all major markets of the OECD as well as in China and India.
The patent claims a novel combination cancer treatment, which associates a chemotherapeutic agent with an immunotherapeutic agent, resulting in a dramatically improved specific immune response against the malignant tissues. In fact, the treatment induces simultaneously an adaptive cellular immune response (tumour cell specific), an amplified innate immune response and decreases the immune tolerance that tumours typically acquire. This patented combination has, for the first time in appropriate animal models, allowed to totally eliminate very large vascularized solid tumours... BT PHARMA's Press Release [PDF] -