CEVEC Raises €6M to Grow CAP® Technology Based Protein and Vaccine Business

CEVEC Pharmaceuticals, licensing its human CAP® Technology based expression system for proteins and vaccines, has announced the closing of a €6M financing round. NRW.BANK and Creathor Venture Fonds led this round which included the participation from current investors, a group of private and institutional investors and ERP Startfonds of KfW bank.

The funding enables CEVEC to strengthen the growth of its protein and vaccine commercialization business of the proprietary CAP® Technology platform. CEVEC also intends to develop certain vaccines together with partners based on a further financing round, to be closed by the end of 2011.

The CAP® Technology platform comprises human CAP® and CAP-T™ expression systems and is used for the manufacture of complex biologics and therapeutic antibodies with human-like glycosylation and sialylation patterns.

New data proved that the human CAP® technology is also an excellent platform for various vaccine production needs.

Outstanding data obtained with the only independent available human cell system for various influenza strains and various other vaccine types show the broad range where the CAP system can be used.

Dr. Rainer Lichtenberger, CEO of CEVEC comments: “We are delighted for having the financial resources to making the human CAP technology the leading system in the global expression market. With Creathor Venture and NRW.BANK we have two first-class investors on board who value the unique strengths of our CAP® Technology.”

Wolfgang Kintzel, CCO of CEVEC states: “After the successful launch of CAP® und CAP-T™ in Europe, Asia/Pacific and the U.S. for use in the field of protein and antibody expression, the new excellent scientific data using the system for vaccine production open a truly outstanding new business opportunity for CEVEC. The human CAP technology will soon become the leading cell line for all vaccine and protein production needs.”

Karlheinz Schmelig, Chairman of CEVEC´s supervisory board and Managing Director at Creathor Venture and Dr. Aristotelis Nastos, NRW.BANK, add: “We see tremendous commercial opportunities for customers and CEVEC in the global pharmaceutical manufacturing markets with CEVEC’s high performance human expression system CAP. We also highly value the outstanding management and scientific team of CEVEC and their proven execution skills.”