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From left to right: Jaume Mora, scientific director of Oncohematology HSJD; Joan Bertran, CEO of Cebiotex; Lucas Krauel, HSJD surgeon, scientific advisor and partner Cebiotex, and José Antonio Tornero, a researcher at the UPC and CTO of Cebiotex.
 03.05.2016

Cebiotex opens a second crowdfunding round for the development of nanofiber tissues against cancer

After having succesfully closed a first crowfunding round of 300,000 euros in just 11 days, Cebiotex, a spin-off of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Sant Joan de Déu-Barcelona Children’s Hospital, located at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), has launched a second round of  300,000 euros, managed, once more, by European biotech crowdfunding platform CapitalCell. The company will allocate the resources obtained to expedite the development of an innovative system to administer antitumor drugs - a biodegradable nanofiber tissue for the local treatment of cancer- while ensuring that these new drugs are made available not only for adult patients but also for pediatric oncological patients 

 

Researchers at Sant Joan de Déu Hospital and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunyaat the Terrassa Campus, through the spin-off Cebiotex, have developed a biodegradable (absorbable by the body) nanofiber tissue which can be impregnated by antitumor drugs and used by the surgeons to cover, during the surgery aimed at removing the tumor, the surgical site to eliminate the remaining tumor cells. This local delivery system is less toxic and more effective than the current consolidation treatment after surgery: radiotherapy. The ultimate goal will be to avoid radiotherapy treatments and its secondary effects in growing patients. The treatment is based on placing the membrane on the surgical site after the tumor extraction, with the drugs being released at high concentrations directly on the affected area. Researchers have proved the efficacy of this new antitumor drug delivery system with animals and are starting the procedures to obtain the European Medicines Agency (EMA)’s autorization to initiate preclinical and clinical phases for its first drug aimed at treating Soft Tissue Sarcoma (STS). 

The product has been patented by Sant Joan de Déu Hospital and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and licensed to Cebiotex. On April the 15th, Cebiotex opened its second bridge financing round of 300.000 euros aimed at private investors that want to acquire shares through the European biotech crowdfunding platform Capital Cell which has recently been recognized as alternative funding entity by the Generalitat de Catalunya. This second round is opened after going through B-Ready, the accelerating program by SHIP2B, and after successfully closing, in just 11 days, the first 300.000 euro round with private investors and Business Angels from ESADE BAN and SHIP2B. With this initiative the project will progress while guaranteeing that the new drugs developed will not reach the adult cancer market only (which, being more frequent, is also more economically profitable and attractive to traditional investors), but also pediatric cancer, orphan diseases due to its low prevalence. 

Pediatric cancer, orphan disease

In the case of Cebiotex in particular, the investment also has a social impact, since it will support the company’s pediatric vision. Cancer is the deadliest disease for children in Europe: more than 300 infants below 14 years old die yearly in Spain, 3.000 in Europe. It is estimated that 250.000 new cancer cases are diagnosed every year, 90.000 of which do not survive. Nonetheless, during the last 20 years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved only 3 new antitumor drugs for pediatric use, because due to its low frequency (when compared to adult cancers) they do not receive as much attention from the Pharmaceutical Industry nor the Investment Funds that accelerate the development of new drugs. 
 

The first spin-off of the UPC and SJD

Cebiotex, a biotechnological company spin-off the InnotexCenter/INTEXTER at UPC and participated by 58 private investors and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, was founded on 2012 in order to develop the project. Joan Bertran, one of its co-founders, is a textile engineer who very closely lived the death of a friend’s daughter and proposed to researchers at UPC and Sant Joan de Déu to work in the creation of biomaterials to provide a medical solution for tumors. The first product has been designed for treatment of soft tissue sarcoma but new materials will be developed for child and adult tumors. In the adult market new products for colon, breast, ovary, pancreas cancer and glioblastoma (brain cancer), and in the pediatric market the targets will be neuroblastoma, glioblastoma, rabdomiosarcoma, osteosarcoma or Ewing’s sarcoma. 

• More information to invest in the project: http://capitalcell.net/investment/2a-ronda-cebiotex44/