Targovax has secured almost 13 MNOK (2.2 MUSD) from the Radium Hospital Research Foundation, Birk Venture, RO Invest and existing owners for further development of a cancer vaccine against pancreas cancer.

A further 5.75 MNOK (1 MUSD) is secured for the next financing round, totally 18.5 MNOK (3.1 MUSD). Only a few months earlier, the company received 9 MNOK in public funding from Innovation Norway in a project together with Oslo University Hospital, Radium. The funding will be used for clinical development of the cancer vaccine TG01, targeting the very serious cancer form affecting the pancreas.

CEO Hanne Mette D. Kristensen, states “We have now secured private and public funding of the project. This gives a good signal regarding the project’s quality. We will be ready to include the first patients in clinical studies by the last quarter of 2012.

Hans Ivar Robinson, Managing Director, Birk Venture, says: "We are delighted to be part of the development of a new therapeutic approach for Pancreas patients. The therapeutic vaccine addresses a significant unmet medical need, and we are excited to see it moving further into the clinical and commercial stages."

Orphan Drug-status in EU and USA
Targovax has already received Orphan Drug Status for the vaccine targeting pancreatic cancer in EU and USA. By this, the company can receive ten or seven years of market exclusivity, respectively, from the date of market introduction.

The biotech company Targovax started in October 2010 to develop TG01, a cancer vaccine targeting pancreatic cancer. TG01 is based on research from the end of the 90’s at the Norwegian Radium Hospital (OUS Radium) and Norsk Hydro. 

For more information se www.targovax.com 

Read more about the Radium Hospital Research Foundation and  Birk Venture