Cebiotex, headquartered in the Barcelona Science Park, has kicked off a Series A funding round in which it hopes to raise €4 million. Its intention isto speed up CEB-01patient trials for treating soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) and develop new applications for pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma. Since it began operating in 2015, Cebiotex has completed three funding rounds coming to €4.3 million, which has enabled it to develop a GMP-certified pre-industrial pilot plant for the production of CEB-01; achieve orphan drug designation from the EMA for the indication of soft-tissue sarcomas, and begin Phase I/IIa clinical trials at Hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona.

Cebiotex has just kicked off a Series A funding round in which it hopes to raise €4 million. Its intention is to speed up clinical development of CEB-01 for treating soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) and bring new pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma applications to preclinical phases.

CEB-01 is a smart, biocompatible and biodegradable nanofiber fabric for local delivery of chemotherapy immediately after tumor removal, and developed entirely by the company using its innovative Cebiotex® technology. CEB-01 delivers a local concentration 1,000 times higher than chemotherapy, with no side effects and without altering the standard treatment. It acts in the first weeks after surgery, when there is no set treatment, and has achieved highly promising levels of efficacy in preclinical models.

Alongside conducting clinical trials of CEB-01 for soft-tissue sarcomas, a rare type of cancer that starts in adipose, muscular, fibrous, nervous, connective and other types of tissue, Cebiotex is also working on its application for pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma, a very aggressive malignant brain tumor.

Since it began operating in 2015, Cebiotex has completed three funding rounds, raising around €4.3 million from public and private sources.

This funding has enabled it to secure GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification from the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices (Agencia Española de Medicamentos y ProductosSanitarios, AEMPS) for the production of its Cebiotex® technology; Orphan Drug Designation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for CEB-01 in soft-tissue sarcoma; and approval from the AEMPS to begin Phase I/IIa clinical trials in this indication at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, as a referral hospital.

 “Cebiotex has completed a highly successful first stage in which we have achieved all our targets,” says Joan Bertran, CEO and co-founder of Cebiotex. “We have brought our first drug candidate, CEB-01, to clinical phases and reduced the project’s technological risk. Now we need to build up ‘financial muscle’ and grow. In this new round, international funds that we have been liaising with will take an equity stake for the first time at Cebiotex. The challenge in the immediate future is to sign pre-market licensing agreements with pharmaceutical firms to deliver sustained value to our partners and investors and ensure the project’s financial feasibility.”

Cebiotex has patented its technological drug delivery platform in the United States, the European Union and China and has a pre-industrial pilot plant. The company develops, produces and tests CEB-01 in its entirety: it designs the nanofiber production units, the development process for its therapeutic applications and characterization at the preclinical and clinical level. All its products are protected by patents and new patent applications. All its products are protected by patents and new patent applications.

 “Cebiotex now has the potential and know-how to design and build specific production teams for each of CEB-01’s therapeutic applications,” notes Bertran. “This is one of our characteristic features, setting us apart from scientific teams who do not have ‘technological muscle’ in the application of nanofibers in the health sector.”