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Newly founded biotech company ActiTrexx receives funding of € 3.5 million to develop cell therapy against transplant rejection

DGAP-News: ActiTrexx GmbH / Key word(s): Financing Newly founded biotech company ActiTrexx receives funding of € 3.5 million to develop cell therapy against transplant rejection 02.03.2021 / 09:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Newly founded biotech company ActiTrexx receives funding of € 3.5 million to develop cell therapy against transplant rejection

Mainz, Germany, 02. March 2021 - ActiTrexx GmbH, a new biotech spin-off from the University Medical Center Mainz, Germany, has successfully closed its Series A financing. A consortium led by LBBW Venture Capital GmbH with participation from MediVentures GmbH, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Investitions- und Strukturbank Rheinland-Pfalz (ISB) invested a total of € 3.5 million.

ActiTrexx develops ATreg, activated regulatory T cells (Tregs), which are stimulated using a proprietary process, to prevent rejection reactions in transplanted patients and excessive immune responses in autoimmune diseases. For this purpose, the regulatory T cells, natural guardian cells of the immune system, are activated outside the body via a patent-protected method and administered to patients intravenously. The team led by Prof. Andrea Tüttenberg and Dr. Helmut Jonuleit from the Department of Dermatology will use the funds raised to further optimize and clinically test the novel cell therapy.

The first clinical trials for the treatment of leukemia patients who have undergone stem cell transplantation and are at particularly high risk of a life-threatening transplant rejection, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), is particularly high, are due to start as early as 2021.The trial will run in cooperation with the III. Medical Clinic of the University Medical Center Mainz. Preclinical data demonstrated that ATreg can significantly attenuate an already existing GvHD, and even prevent, largely, the development of the disease when given early after transplantation as a prophylactic treatment. "Should these observations be confirmed in patients in the clinic, ATreg could be the cornerstone of a new, effective GvHD therapy with few side effects," said Prof. Tüttenberg, CEO of ActiTrexx.