Inflazome is a pioneering inflammasome company developing orally available NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors to address clinical unmet needs across a wide variety of inflammatory diseases
• Acquisition gives Roche full rights to the Inflazome portfolio
• Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in the body is implicated in many diseases caused by chronic, uncontrolled inflammation
• Inflazome shareholders received €380 million upfront, and are eligible to receive additional milestone payments

Naarden, The Netherlands 21 September 2020: Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, notes that its portfolio company Inflazome announced today that it has closed a share purchase agreement with Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY). Inflazome’s shareholders have received an upfront payment of €380 million and are eligible to receive additional contingent payments to be made based on the achievement of certain predetermined milestones.

Inflazome was founded in 2016 by leading medical researchers Prof Matt Cooper (University of Queensland, Australia) and Prof Luke O’Neill (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland). The company is a leader in the development of inflammasome inhibitors.

The acquisition gives Roche full rights to Inflazome’s entire portfolio which is composed of clinical and preclinical orally available small molecule NLRP3 inhibitors. Roche intends to further develop NLRP3 inhibitors across a wide variety of indications with high unmet medical need.

Matt Cooper, Chief Executive Officer, Inflazome, commented “We are delighted to close this deal with Roche, an outstanding pharmaceutical company with a broad commitment to multiple indications. With Inflazome now part of the Roche organization, Inflazome’s pioneering drugs are well positioned to be developed quickly and effectively so they can help patients suffering from debilitating diseases.”

Marco Boorsma, General Partner, Forbion, said “Having been the lead investor in Inflazome’s Series B fundraising in 2018, we are pleased to see this deal closed with Roche, a trusted partner, which leaves the Company well-positioned to unlock the potential of its NLRP3 inhibitors. We believe this transaction reflects well on the Forbion team to help companies grow and develop, and delivering excellent returns to our funds. We are delighted to have been part of Inflazome’s journey and will follow the development of Inflazome‘s promising compounds with great interest.”

Lazard acted as financial advisor and Goodwin Procter and Byrne Wallace acted as legal counsel to Inflazome.

For more information please contact:

Forbion contact:
Marco Boorsma, General Partner
P: +31 (35) 699 3000

Instinctif Partners for Forbion
Melanie Toyne-Sewell/Phillip Marriage/Kiki Zaccagnini
Email: forbion@instinctif.com

Notes to Editors

About Forbion
Forbion is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Singapore. Forbion invests in life sciences companies that are active in the (bio-) pharmaceutical space. Forbion’s investment team has built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in over 66 companies. Forbion manages well over EUR 1.25 billion across ten funds.

Forbion is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Besides financial objectives, Forbion selects investments that will positively affect the health and well-being of patients.

Its investors include the EIF, through its European Recovery Programme (ERP), LfA, Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI), AMUF and EFSI facilities and KfW Capital through the Programme, “ERP – Venture Capital Fondsinvestments”.

Forbion operates a joint venture with BGV, the manager of seed and early-stage funds, especially focused on Benelux and Germany.
For more information, please visit: www.forbion.com.

About Inflazome
Inflazome is a biotech company leading the development of orally available drugs to address clinical unmet needs in inflammatory diseases by targeting inflammasomes. Inflammasomes are understood to drive many chronic inflammatory conditions, from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and NASH. Inflazome has a portfolio of orally available small molecule NLRP3 inhibitors, with lead molecules having successfully completed Phase I clinical trials, as well as several high potential earlier-stage programmes.

Inflazome has raised €55m in Venture Capital financing from leading investors Forbion, Longitude Capital, Fountain Healthcare Partners and Novartis Venture Fund.

Inflazome is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

About the NLRP3 Inflammasome
Activated NLRP3 acts as a ‘danger sensor’ in the body to release the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-18 and induce uncontrolled, lytic cell death (pyroptosis). These processes lead to chronic inflammation, and as such, NLRP3 has been implicated in a large number of diseases.

Utrecht (The Netherlands) and Philadelphia – Gilde Healthcare company Lava Therapeutics announced the closing of an oversubscribed $83 million (€71 million) Series C financing to fund the advancement of its pipeline and platform. The financing was co-led by new investors Novo Ventures and Sanofi Ventures, and included additional new investors Redmile Group LLC, Ysios Capital and BB Pureos Bioventures. In addition, current investors Gilde Healthcare, Versant and MRL Ventures Fund LLC participated significantly in the round.

“We are grateful to have attracted a high-quality syndicate of new investors complementing strong continued support of our existing investors. This financing provides meaningful capital to advance our bispecific gamma-delta T cell engager portfolio into multiple proof-of-concept clinical trials expected to start in 2021 for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies,” said Stephen Hurly, chief executive officer of Lava Therapeutics. “We believe our targeted approach, leveraging the unique features of gamma9-delta2 T cells with innovative bispecific antibodies, will deliver novel T cell-based therapies offering advantages over today’s oncology treatments”.

Gamma-delta T cells are the natural surveillance cells of the immune system, continuously patrolling the human body for the identification and targeting of tumor cells. These cells bridge the innate with the adaptive immune system and are a largely untapped opportunity in cancer treatment. Lava Therapeutics’ bispecific gamma-delta T cell engager platform is harnessing the unique properties of these T cells creating a revolutionary truly tumor-targeted immunotherapy to improve outcomes for cancer patients.

Gilde Healthcare acted as lead investor in the first institutional investment round of €16M in 2018. Gilde Healthcare’s Operational Partner Prof. Dr. Paul Parren is actively involved as Head of R&D.

About Lava Therapeutics

Lava Therapeutics is developing a proprietary bispecific antibody platform that engages gamma-delta T cells for the treatment of hematological and solid cancers. The company’s first-in-class immuno-oncology approach activates gamma delta T cell upon binding to membrane-expressed tumor targets. Lava Therapeutics was founded in 2016 based on intellectual property originating from the Amsterdam University Medical Center. The company has established a highly experienced antibody research and development team located in Utrecht, the Netherlands and Philadelphia, USA. For more information, please visit www.lavatherapeutics.com.

About Gilde Healthcare

Gilde Healthcare is a specialized healthcare investor managing over €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) across two fund strategies: venture & growth capital and private equity. Gilde Healthcare’s venture & growth capital fund invests in fast growing companies active in digital health, medtech and therapeutics. The venture & growth companies are based in Europe and North America. Gilde Healthcare’s private equity fund invests in profitable European lower mid-market healthcare companies with a focus on the Benelux and DACH region. The private equity fund targets healthcare providers, suppliers of medical products and service providers in the healthcare market. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.gildehealthcare.com.

15/09/2020 – 11:19 | Portfolio

Investment will support continued growth and expansion of leading reference-based pricing platform

HILLSBORO, Ore., Sept. 9, 2020 – 6 Degrees Health, a provider of technology-enabled healthcare cost containment solutions for self-insured employers, today announced it has secured a significant investment from FTV Capital, a sector-focused growth equity investor in innovative companies in enterprise technology and services, financial services, and payments and transaction processing. This investment will enable 6 Degrees Health to expand its platform, which enables employers to realize significant cost savings while also generating best-in-class employee experience.

6 Degrees Health’s reference-based pricing solutions encourage health plans to pay providers a fair rate, without unduly restricting employee benefits. 6 Degrees Health’s proprietary MediVI technology platform collects, analyzes and benchmarks claims and billing data across plans, providers and geographies to provide medical reimbursement analytics for audits, contracting and claim negotiation.

“Our goal at 6 Degrees Health is to bring equity and fairness back into the healthcare reimbursement equation,” said Scott Ray, CEO of 6 Degrees Health. “Through our differentiated, per-employee-per month pricing model and our MediVI technology platform, we look to eliminate restrictive networks, decrease healthcare costs and allow members to seek care from any provider they choose without the risk of decreased benefits. FTV Capital’s investment and strong expertise in enterprise technology will allow us to continue focusing on bringing greater transparency to our customers and the healthcare sector more broadly.”

“As a result of a strong leadership team and passion to provide transparency, 6 Degrees Health continues to ‘pull back the curtain’ on healthcare pricing,” said Alex Mason, partner at FTV Capital. “FTV Capital is excited to partner with a driven, dedicated team to help further enhance its technologies and create more transparency for the market.”

“Rising healthcare spend is a significant cost burden and managing high-cost claims is the top priority for self-insured employers,” said Chris Winship, partner at FTV Capital. “6 Degrees Health provides self-insured employers with a technology-enabled cost-containment solution that delivers significant savings on healthcare claims. We are excited to support the company’s incredible traction as they inject analytics into a challenged industry that is swimming in broken technologies, manual processes and other inefficiencies.”

As part of the transaction, FTV Capital’s Chris Winship, Alex Mason and Abhay Puskoor will join the 6 Degrees Health board of directors.

6 Degrees Health was advised by Covington Associates.