Imperial Innovations Group Regulatory News (IVO)

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18 November 2013

Imperial Innovations Group plc

MISSION Therapeutics receives £20m Series B funding

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, 'Innovations'), a leading technology commercialisation and investment group, has increased its support for MISSION Therapeutics by committing £4.5m of a £20m funding round. Innovations had previously participated in a £6m round for MISSION in August 2011. MISSION is a biotechnology company developing drugs that target a cell's response to DNA damage. Innovations is joined in the round by new investor Pfizer Venture Investments and other existing investors Sofinnova Partners, SR One and Roche Venture Fund.

The financing round will enable MISSION to advance its lead programmes for the treatment of various genetically defined cancers, through preclinical development and to exploit further the potential of its novel technology platform.

MISSION was formed to exploit advances in the biology of the DNA damage response for the discovery of new classes of therapeutic agents with novel mechanisms of action. Utilising fundamental research principally generated in the laboratory of Professor Stephen Jackson, MISSION has progressed several small molecule discovery programmes focused on key enzymes in the ubiquitin pathway to selectively target difficult-to-treat cancers.

Rob Woodman, Director of Healthcare Investments at Innovations and a non-executive director on MISSION's board, said:

"MISSION's strong leadership team has made excellent progress in translating fundamental knowledge from the laboratory into a strong drug discovery platform. The VC arms of three of the world's top five pharmaceutical companies are now supporting MISSION with SR One, Roche Ventures and now Pfizer Ventures investing alongside Innovations, and this is a great endorsement of our model of building companies based on world-class science."

Michael Moore, Executive Chairman, MISSION, said:

"This timely investment will significantly enhance our internal capabilities and strategic goals. It will enable us to build on the Company's achievements since inception two years ago, strengthen our management team and advance our lead compounds towards the clinic."

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Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk 

Since founding in 1986, Innovations has invested in the most promising technologies from our brightest scientists. Today it is connected with four of the world's top research universities: Imperial College London, Cambridge and Oxford Universities and University College London. These centres of scientific excellence between them have a research income of over £1.3 billion per annum. Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas. It adds value by leading the formation of new spin-out companies, providing investment, encouraging co-investment as well as through its operational expertise. It also runs an Incubator in London that is the initial home for many of its technology spin-outs.

Originally formed as the Technology Transfer office for Imperial College - a role it still carries out - Innovations is today a significant technology investor and has built a portfolio of around 90 companies. Almost £150m has been invested by Innovations and £0.5bn has been raised in total by the portfolio companies. In 2013, a £30 million loan facility was agreed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for investment in biotech and therapeutics businesses.

Innovation invests in the most promising opportunities from whichever technology sector they arise and has built particular expertise in the key sectors of: Therapeutics, Medtech and devices, Engineering and materials and ICT.

MISSION Therapeutics - www.missiontherapeutics.com 

MISSION Therapeutics is a private drug discovery company focused on the identification and targeting of ubiquitin pathways in cancer and other diseases.

The founding technology includes science and knowledge originating from the academic laboratory of Prof. Stephen Jackson at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge. Much of the research in in his laboratory has been funded by Cancer Research UK and the European Research Council. MISSION has a pipeline agreement with the University of Cambridge and Cancer Research Technology that allows access to certain IP and know-how emerging from the academic work of Professor Jackson's laboratory.

The Company is developing small molecule drugs that target deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) involved in the DNA damage response, with the aim of inducing synthetic lethality, a powerful mechanism for the selective killing of tumour cells characterized by specific genetic abnormalities. MISSION's novel DUB technology platform integrates unique biology, screening and chemistry capabilities to rapidly advance compounds targeting DUBs.

In August 2011, MISSION received £6 million ($9.6 million) in Series A funding from Sofinnova Partners, Imperial Innovations, SR One and Roche Venture Fund.