Swedish clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Anocca AB has successfully raised SEK 440 million (approximately $46 million) in financing to advance its groundbreaking TCR-T cell therapy program targeting pancreatic cancer. The funding round was led by Mellby Gård with strong support from AMF, Ramsbury, existing shareholders, and new investors.
The capital will primarily support the continued development of VIDAR-1, Anocca's gene-edited T-cell receptor-engineered T cell (TCR-T) therapy targeting mutant KRAS in pancreatic cancer. VIDAR-1 represents a significant milestone as Europe's first non-viral gene-edited TCR-T cell therapy, with patient recruitment now open for its Phase I clinical trial.
Clinical Trial Design and Patient Recruitment
The Phase I multi-center trial is currently being conducted at eight leading university hospitals across four countries: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands. VIDAR-1 is designed as a multi-product umbrella trial targeting oncogenic driver mutations in KRAS within pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), with plans to investigate up to 20 patients per product in a set of phase I/II studies.
Patients will be eligible to enroll if they have matching HLA and KRAS mutations corresponding to an available product. The trial design reflects Anocca's personalized medicine approach, allowing for systematic generation of treatments tailored to broad patient populations.
Addressing Critical Unmet Medical Need
Pancreatic cancer represents one of the most challenging malignancies to treat, with mutant KRAS implicated in pancreatic, lung, and colorectal cancers. Specifically, G12V and G12D mutations in KRAS affect approximately 90% of pancreatic cancer patients. The disease carries a devastating prognosis, with a five-year survival rate of less than 10% for patients with PDAC.
"Despite recent advances there are no definitive treatments for advanced patients at present," highlighting the critical need for innovative therapeutic approaches like VIDAR-1.
Company Leadership and Investment Perspective
Reagan Jarvis, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Anocca, expressed gratitude for investor support: "We thank our investors for their strong and continued support as we advance our first TCR-T cell therapy products into the clinic. The team has built a unique discovery platform and in-house manufacturing capability, and we are now excited to see the first products reaching patients with high unmet need."
Johan Andersson, Chairman of Mellby Gård, commented on the investment: "We have been invested in Anocca throughout its preclinical development and are pleased to see the Company transition into a clinical stage biotech. We look forward to seeing Anocca help patients that have limited treatment options today with their innovative approach to T-cell therapies."
Advanced Technology Platform
Anocca operates as a fully integrated clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing libraries of TCR-T therapies to treat solid tumors and other difficult-to-treat diseases, including infectious and autoimmune diseases. The company has built a unique discovery engine that uses programmable human cells to recreate and manipulate T cell immunity.
The company's proprietary technologies enable scaling of TCR-T cell therapy development, allowing systematic generation of libraries of products that represent personalized treatments for broad patient populations. Anocca currently maintains the broadest pipeline of TCR-T oncology cell therapy treatments.
Manufacturing and Infrastructure
Anocca operates advanced research and development infrastructure, underpinned by a custom software ecosystem called AnoccaOS, and an in-house cGMP manufacturing and process development facility. The company's TCR-T cell therapies are manufactured using non-viral gene editing technology at Anocca's facilities in Södertälje, Sweden, where over 130 staff from more than 40 nations work.
The financing will also support progress of Anocca's preclinical pipeline beyond VIDAR-1, positioning the company to advance multiple therapeutic programs targeting various solid tumor indications and other challenging diseases.
