EpilepsyGTx, a Cambridge-based BioTech startup targeted on analysis and growth of gene therapies to deal with refractory epilepsy, as we speak introduced it has raised €28 million ($33 million) in Sequence A financing to advance its lead programme EPY201 by means of Section 1/2a medical trials.
The spherical included funding from XGEN Enterprise, the British Enterprise Financial institution (who invested €12 million (£10.5 million)), and a world biopharmaceutical firm.
Nicolas Koebel, Chief Government Officer of EpilepsyGTx, says: “Refractory epilepsy is a devastating situation inflicting unpredictable and life-threatening seizures, and affecting tens of millions of sufferers worldwide. Our novel gene remedy EPY201 delivered on to the seizure focus has the potential to cease seizures with a single, minimally invasive administration. In doing so, it should change the way in which refractory epilepsy has been handled for many years. We’re proud to have the help of such excessive calibre buyers as we progress into medical trials.”
For context: European funding exercise in 2025 exhibits sustained investor curiosity in neurological and CNS-focused therapeutics, with corporations equivalent to EG 427 securing €27 million to advance pinpoint genetic medicines for power neurological circumstances, Aerska elevating €17 million to develop RNAi therapeutics for mind illnesses, TRIMTECH Therapeutics amassing €28.6 million to progress CNS-penetrant degrader therapies, and Augustine Therapeutics elevating €77.7 million to develop therapies for neurodegenerative and neuromuscular illnesses.
Collectively, these rounds signify round €150 million of recent capital coming into the sector this 12 months.
Inside this panorama, EpilepsyGTx’s Sequence A aligns with a wider European push in the direction of precision neurology and superior genetic or molecular applied sciences. The presence of one other UK-based firm on this group (TRIMTECH Therapeutics) highlights the nation’s rising focus of CNS-focused biotech R&D, situating EpilepsyGTx’s progress inside an lively and well-funded innovation ecosystem.
Leandros Kalisperas, Chief Funding Officer, British Enterprise Financial institution, provides: “The UK’s life sciences sector continues to supply world-class innovation, and the Financial institution is dedicated to constructing that momentum. By means of cornerstone commitments to main sector funds and by being the UK’s most lively late-stage investor, the Financial institution helps IP-rich corporations entry the capital they should scale within the UK.”
Based in 2021, EpilepsyGTx’s mission is to make sufferers with refractory epilepsy seizure-free. We’re growing a portfolio of cutting-edge gene therapies that are primarily based on analysis from the UCL Queen Sq. Institute of Neurology.
EpilepsyGTx raised €8.5 million ($10 million) final 12 months in pre-Seed and Seed funding led by the UCL Know-how Fund, managed by AlbionVC in collaboration with UCL Enterprise, the commercialisation firm of UCL with participation from Zcube, the enterprise capital arm of Zambon.
Federica Draghi, Managing Companion of XGEN Enterprise, provides: “EpilepsyGTx is pioneering a novel, regionally administered gene remedy strategy designed to attain focused modulation of epileptogenic mind areas. We consider that localiwed gene supply gives a robust avenue for sturdy and disease-modifying interventions in extreme neurological problems and are excited to help the corporate as EPY201 progresses towards medical analysis.”
The funding will allow the supply of first-in-human Section 1/2a medical trials to determine the security and efficacy of the corporate’s lead gene remedy programme EPY201 in a broad inhabitants of sufferers with focal refractory epilepsy (FRE). EPY201 is an adeno-associated viral (AAV) gene remedy designed to cut back neuronal hyperexcitability.
It’s delivered regionally to the epileptogenic focus of the affected person and subsequently avoids the problems of systemic supply. EPY201 gives FRE sufferers the prospect of seizure freedom in a single intervention with out resection or ablation of mind tissue and with out the power use of a number of antiseizure medicines.
FRE describes a bunch of problems wherein sufferers expertise seizures that come up from a selected a part of the mind, resulting in recurrent disabling occasions, cognitive impairment and psychosocial burden. This reportedly impacts about 10 million sufferers worldwide, together with 2 million sufferers within the US, UK and EU.
EPY201 gives the potential to eradicate seizures in sufferers with FRE with a single intervention, dramatically enhancing survival and high quality of life. This gives FRE sufferers the prospect of seizure freedom with out resection or ablation of mind tissue and with out the power use of a number of antiseizure medicines.
EpilepsyGTx will even advance a pipeline of gene therapies concentrating on refractory epilepsy and problems of neuronal hyperexcitability.
Carmine Circelli, Funding Director, British Enterprise Financial institution, says: “Epilepsy GTx is constructed on world main experience from UCL, pursuing an progressive strategy to modulating neurons in epilepsy and backed by compelling preclinical knowledge. If this mechanism is validated in medical trials, the corporate has the potential to be category-defining in epilepsy remedy, addressing substantial unmet affected person want and presenting a major industrial alternative.”
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