Okairos Raises €16 Million in Series B Financing

Basel, Switzerland – September 14, 2010 – Okairos today announced the completion of a Series B private financing round totaling €16 million. The funds will be used to advance the company’s emerging portfolio of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines against major life-threatening diseases through clinical proof of concept.

The financing was led by Versant Ventures and joined by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund. All existing investors – BioMedPartners, LSP and Novartis Venture Funds – also participated in the round.

The financing will enable Okairos to develop next-generation vaccines, which elicit a strong T-cell response and thereby make use of the cellular arm of the immunological response to tackle major infectious diseases in multiple indications, including malaria, HIV, hepatitis C and universal influenza.

“Our investors recognize the huge unmet need in chronic infections,” said Dr Riccardo Cortese, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Okairos. “Existing technologies have not lived up to their promise and this investment will allow us to explore a new approach that exploits the body’s immune response.”

Versant Ventures’ Managing Director Brad Bolzon said: “We believe Okairos’ proprietary technology in adenovirus vectors could provide a solution to fight some of the world’s most life-threatening and virulent diseases. The deep insights of the management team in genetic vaccines and their proven track record in drug development compelled us to make this investment in one of the fastest growing markets.”

Dr Michel Pairet, Head of the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund added: “We see Okairos as a great investment opportunity, aligned with our strategy that defines T-cell vaccines as one of our top priorities. There is also great potential in the development of therapeutic cancer vaccines.”

The global vaccine market is currently valued in excess of $20 billion (1) and is predicted to increase annually by around 10% over the next five years. (2)

About Okairos
Okairos is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company formed in 2007 from IRBM, a Merck, Inc. subsidiary. Okairos develops genetic vaccines for major infectious diseases, including malaria, hepatitis C, HIV and universal influenza. Using a novel proprietary technology, the company follows a pioneering approach to engage the cellular arm of the immune system, specifically T-cells, to fight infectious diseases. Therefore, it addresses a significant unmet medical need to provide vaccines for life-threatening infections. Okairos is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and has laboratories in Rome and Naples, Italy.

Okairos' technology platform is centered on the development of new, potent adenovirus vectors to generate a pipeline of T-cell vaccines against a range of infectious diseases, for which there is currently no effective vaccine. The company is also exploring therapeutic vaccines to treat cancer.
For more information, visit www.okairos.it

Ines-Regina Buth
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This release was published on openPR.