Columbus Venture Partners is a leading Investment Management company focused on innovative early-stage and high-growth opportunities in the Spanish life science industry. Algenex will continue to be controlled by funds advised by Cleon Capital and Vita Advisory, who acquired a majority stake in 2018.
The new funds will be used to support the future development of Algenex’ proprietary and patent protected CrisBio® technology, including the European approval of the first veterinary vaccine produced using this technology, currently anticipated in H1 2021. The funds will also be used to strengthen Algenex’ new GMP production facilities and reinforce its pipeline of human vaccines. CrisBio® is Algenex’ Baculovirus vector-mediated expression platform, which is used to produce biotechnology products for the development of human and veterinary vaccines and other applications. By harnessing the power of insects to act as natural single-use bioreactors, CrisBio® is a versatile and robust alternative to current bioreactor-based expression technologies, offering benefits that include linear scalability, reduced production costs and increased productivity reaching gram per litre yields. Damiá Tormo, Managing Partner and co-founder of Columbus Venture Partners, will join the Board of Algenex.
Potential to revolutionize vaccine production
“Algenex excels in the complex area of recombinant protein production and its unique CrisBio® platform has the potential to revolutionize vaccine production in human health,” said Damiá Tormo. “The global COVID-19 pandemic has served to highlight the urgent need for faster, more economical methods of vaccine production and Algenex approach provides a more efficient, simple, scalable and cost-effective alternative to current bioreactor-based expression technologies on the market. We look forward to partnering with Cleon Capital, Vita Advisory and Algenex´ management team to support the Company as it continues to expand its proven capabilities into human health.”
“This new financing is an important milestone for Algenex as we seek to further expand our proprietary CrisBio® platform technology in human health,” said Claudia Jiménez, CEO of Algenex. “Raising these new funds during the global COVID-19 pandemic with the support of such an experienced new investor, alongside our existing shareholders, is a further validation of the potential of Algenex’ technology and strategy and will enable us to fully exploit CrisBio®’s potential in the production of valuable proteins.”
Nicola Zambon, Managing Partner and Founder of Cleon Capital said: “We are very pleased with the progress made by Algenex and the management team since the initial investment in 2018. As the company enters into the next stage of development, we are excited by the prospect of partnering with Columbus to continue, jointly with management, to create significant value for our investors and shareholders”.
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