Hookipa rais­es $60M to fund im­munother­a­py R&D; Roche bags Io­n­is op­tion for $45M; Re­gen­eron fights back against No­var­tis' Eylea ri­val

→ Hookipa Biotech has raised $60 mil­lion (€50 mil­lion) in an over­sub­scribed Se­ries C round to help push its lead pro­gram, a vac­cine for in­fec­tions caused by a genus of virus­es called cy­tomegalovirus, through Phase II clin­i­cal tri­als. The new round was led by an un­named blue chip U.S. pub­lic in­ven­st­ment fund, and was joined by Gilead as a strate­gic in­vestor. Oth­er new in­vestors in­clude HBM Part­ners, Hill­house Cap­i­tal, and Sirona Cap­i­tal. Hookipa al­ready had sev­er­al ex­ist­ing in­vestors on board in­clud­ing Boehringer In­gel­heim’s ven­ture arm and Take­da Ven­tures, which par­tic­i­pat­ed in the round. Oth­er than the cy­tomegalovirus pro­gram (called HB-101), the Vi­en­na-based com­pa­ny is al­so hop­ing to take its ther­a­py for head and neck squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma to Phase I tri­als. Hookipa plans to ex­pand its tech plat­form in­to oth­er dis­ease ar­eas, in­clud­ing prostate can­cer.

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