Integra raises 10.7 million for genetic writing

The advanced therapies biotech company Integra Therapeutics has just closed a €10.7 million seed round to continue developing its gene-writing platform and its first CAR-T therapeutic products for oncology and autoimmune diseases. The transaction has received support from its main investors and has also allowed the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) to participate.

Integra is a spin-off of the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) founded by doctors Marc Güell and Avencia Sánchez-Mejías in 2020. The company, based at the Advanced Therapies Platform of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, has developed the FiCAT gene writing platform. "It's about molecular medicine; we can imagine it as a nanorobot that writes a therapeutic message into a patient's genome. If until now the first generation of gene writing was a pair of scissors that cut and allowed some letters in a word to be changed, FiCAT adds a full-text editor, using the transposase enzyme," explains Avencia Sánchez-Mejías, also the CEO.

The UPF spin-off has Invivo, Columbus, AdBio and Takeda among its investors.

The company quickly attracted investor interest. A year after its creation, the startup closed a €4.5 million funding round with Spanish venture capital funds Invivo Partners and Columbus Ventures Partners, along with French firm AdBio Partners and Takeda Ventures, the investment arm of the Japanese pharmaceutical company. All of them are reinvesting in this venture.

On the other hand, Integra has raised €4 million from the EIC. The European public investor has committed up to €8 million to the company, so its contribution could increase in the coming months. It has also secured €2.7 million from the CDTI (Spanish Institute of Technology and Innovation). "This investment round strengthens our position as a strategic company for the European Union thanks to our innovative genome editing solution," says Sánchez-Mejías.

In addition to the FiCAT platform, Integra Therapeutics is developing its first CAR-T therapeutic products for oncology and autoimmune diseases. It is also developing a gene therapy product for a rare pediatric liver disease funded by the EIC Accelerator. The company expects to reach the clinical phase, research with patients, within two to three years. It will also invest the funds in establishing a robust production process that will allow the technology to be transferred to third parties to reach more patients.