French biotech startup HEPHAISTOS secures €10.3m seed round to reach the clinical stage

HEPHAISTOS-Pharma (HEPHAISTOS), a biotechnology company developing next generation immunotherapies against cancer targeting innate immunity to increase the cure rate of patients, has completed its €4.5 million seed round to finance industrialization and advance its lead candidate ONCO-Boost towards the clinic. Elaia leads a consortium previously initiated by xista science ventures, the Fondation Fournier-Majoie and Noshaq.

Florian DENIS, Investment Director, Elaia: ''Elaia is very proud to join and strengthen the syndication. HEPHAISTOS’ core technology based on immunostimulants has the potential to turn cold tumors into hot tumors in hard-to-treat cancers. Frédéric CAROFF and his team have generated impressive preclinical data that will be scaled up towards additional value-creating milestones.''

Frederic CAROFF, CEO and Co-founder, HEPHAISTOS-Pharma: ''ELAIA has a proven track record in supporting biotech companies through to the clinic and success, and we are delighted to have them on board. With xista science ventures, Fondation Fournier-Majoie and Noshaq, our consortium of seed investors brings not only the necessary funds, but also complementary expertise and a network that will structure the company. They will play a crucial role in the success of HEPHAISTOS.''

HEPHAISTOS’ innovative approach to innate modulation has received significant validation and support from prestigious programs, with a total of €5.8 million awarded to accelerate the development of ONCO-Boost for the treatment of hard-to-treat solid tumors, where there is a high unmet medical need, BPIFRANCE iNov national competition, EIC Accelerator European competition and RHU clinical grant from France 2030, that will include a clinical phase 1/2 in collaboration with prestigious clinical centers.

This seed round will mainly finance the industrialization of drug production and regulatory toxicity studies to file for the CTA in Europe. HEPHAISTOS already has a lot of preclinical data in many cancer indications, but they plan to generate new additional data in monotherapy against unmet medical needs and in combination with promising drugs from other pharmaceutical companies. Finally, it will also help to recruit new talents and complete the structuring of the board.

www.hephaistos-pharma.fr

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