amcure, a spin-off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), has received a further EUR 1.9 million funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Ascenion has been supporting the entrepreneurial team from the outset – for example with the structuring of a series A financing under the Spinnovator programme.
The clinical development of amcure’s innovative cancer drug is due to start this coming year. The peptide interferes with a target cell structure (CD44v6) discovered at KIT. This approach could lead to new ways of fighting particularly aggressive tumours that rapidly metastasize, for example pancreatic cancer. As recently reported in the scientific journal Gastroenterology, amcure’s peptide not only halted tumour growth in a model system, but also prevented the development of metastases, and even caused the regression of existing metastases.
More information:
- <link http: www.kit.edu kit english pi_2015_130_pancreatic-cancer-cd44-protein-induces-metastases.php _blank external-link-new-window>Article by KIT on the publication in Gastroenterology
- <link http: amcure.com news _blank external-link-new-window>Press release from amcure on the new funding