Norwegian firm Targovax raised NOK 13 million (about $2.2 million) in a series A round of financing to progress its lead anticancer vaccine TG01 into Phase II clinical development as a treatment for pancreatic cancer. The investment consortium included the Radium Hospital Research Foundation, Birk Venture, RO Invest, and existing owners. The new funding follows just a couple of months after Targovax won an Innovation Norway grant of NOK 9 million.
Targovax was established in October 2010 to develop the TG01, a peptide vaccine targeting Ras gene mutations. The vaccine originates from research carried at The Radium Hospital and Norsk Hydro in the late 1990s, and initial trials in patients. Targovax says the latest funding will allow it to manufacture first GMP batches and initiate a Phase II study evaluating TG01 as an adjuvant treatment for pancreatic cancers in patients who have undergone surgery. Patient recruitment is expected to start by the end of 2012.