The Jerusalem-based developer of cancer and auto-immune treatments KAHR Medical, has raised $12 million at the first closing of a $15 million Series-B private equity financing. The remaining $3 million will be raised February 15th.
The company established by Hadasit – the Technology Transfer Company of Hadassah Medical Organization unit Hadasit Bio Holdings will use the proceed primarily to fund the clinical development of KAHR’s lead product, KAHR-102, which recently received regulatory approval in Israel to initiate a Phase-I/IIa in lymphoma, as well as pre-clinical development of KAHR-101 and new pipeline programs.
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Korea Investment Partners, Mirae Asset Venture Investment and DSC Investment, participated in the first closing, along with an existing investor, Flerie Invest AB, a company controlled by Thomas Eldered, CEO and a major shareholder in Recipharm (RECI-B.ST), one of the largest pharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMO) in Europe.
The company’s technology is based on 15 years of research by Professor Michal Dranitzki Elhalel, Head of Nephrology at the Hadassah Medical Center, and Professor Mark Tykocinski, Dean of the School of Medicine at Jefferson University in Philadelphia and former Chief of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania.
KAHR is developing a drug platform known as DSP (Dual Signaling Proteins), bi-functional fusion proteins that are based on the TNF-superfamily, the proteins that control the immune system. KAHR’s technology allows the construction of biological drugs with two functional sides that allow these drugs to block or activate two reinforcing biological signals at the same time. KAHR’s DSP platforms, named DSP-Hexamers and DSP-Clusters, form a new generation of biological drugs with great diversity and superior efficacy for the treatment of multiple cancer and autoimmune disease indications.
Dr. Noam Shani, CEO of KAHR: “We are very happy to announce this important financing round. This funding will allow the company to advance our lead products through their initial pre-clinical and clinical development stages; KAHR-102 is now clinic-ready, regulatory approved in Israel to initiate a Phase I/IIa clinical trial in lymphoma patients. Our second drug program, KAHR-101, is ready for the final stages of its pre-clinical development and we plan to explore our two DSP platforms for exciting new future pipeline candidates.
As KAHR-102 is getting ready to enter the clinic in 2016, we are very happy with the recent joining of Prof. Arnold Freedman from Harvard Medical School and head of the Lymphoma Program at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, as a member of our Scientific Advisory Board”.
RM Global Partners advised KAHR on the financing.
