Nouscom has closed an oversubscribed €120 million ($135 million) Series D round to advance its lead immunotherapy, NOUS-209, into a single global registration-enabling trial aimed at preventing cancer in people with Lynch syndrome. M Ventures, the venture arm of Merck KGaA, and Revelation Partners co-led the round, which the Basel, Switzerland-based biotech announced on October 19.

A Deep Bench of Backers

The raise brings in three new investors: Angelini Industries through Angelini Investments, the European Investment Bank through Aurea, its co-investment facility with Angelini Ventures, and Neva SGR, the venture capital firm of Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo Group. Returning backers include 5 AM Ventures, Andera Partners, Angelini Ventures, Bpifrance through its InnoBio2 fund, CDP Venture Capital through its Large Ventures Fund, EQT Life Sciences, Indaco Venture Partners, Panakes Partners, Versant Ventures and XGEN Ventures.

The round follows a Series C that Nouscom closed at €67.5 million in November 2023 and later extended when Angelini Ventures joined.

"What sets Nouscom apart is its unique cancer interception approach and the platform that enables it," said Dr. Hakan Goker, managing director and head of biotechnology investments at M Ventures.

Off-the-Shelf Vaccine, Hereditary Target

Nouscom builds neoantigen-targeted immunotherapies on a proprietary viral vector platform, with programs spanning early cancer interception through late-stage metastatic disease. NOUS-209 is an off-the-shelf product that uses two viral vectors to deliver 209 shared frameshift peptide neoantigens, mutated protein fragments found in mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) and microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumors.

That biology makes Lynch syndrome a natural first target. The inherited condition disables DNA mismatch repair, and the company puts the population at more than two million carriers facing up to an 80% lifetime cancer risk, with surveillance such as routine colonoscopy as the only option. The FDA has granted NOUS-209 Fast Track designation for cancer interception in Lynch syndrome carriers.

"We built Nouscom to change that equation," said CEO Marina Udier, Ph.D.

NOUS-209 is also in a Phase 2 study with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with advanced dMMR/MSI-H metastatic colorectal cancer who have stopped responding to anti-PD-1 therapy, plus a study in first-line metastatic colorectal cancer. A second program, NOUS-PEV, is a personalized neoantigen immunotherapy that has reported Phase 1b data.

ESMO Data Lands Next Week

The financing arrives days before Nouscom presents long-term data at the ESMO Congress in Madrid. In the Phase 1b/2 trial, run with the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network and MD Anderson's iCAN-PREVENT consortium, every evaluable Lynch syndrome carrier dosed with NOUS-209 remained free of advanced adenomas and colorectal cancer by colonoscopy after one year (43 participants) and two years (17 participants). The company also reported broad, durable T-cell responses that strengthened after annual re-vaccination.

MD Anderson's Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez, M.D., Ph.D., the study's principal investigator, will present the results on October 25.

Where the Money Goes

Proceeds will fund the registration-enabling trial of NOUS-209 for cancer interception in Lynch syndrome carriers. Endpoints News reports the pivotal study will be a Phase 2 trial enrolling more than 1,000 patients.

"With this backing, we are well positioned to accelerate NOUS-209's clinical development," said Göran Ando, M.D., Nouscom's independent board chair. A positive readout would give Lynch syndrome carriers something the field has never offered them: a way to intercept cancer rather than simply watch for it.

Source

GlobeNewswire — "Nouscom Raises €120 Million ($135 Million) in Oversubscribed Series D Financing and will Present Long-Term Cancer Interception Clinical Data in Lynch Syndrome Carriers at ESMO"