Aelix Therapeutics completes Series A funding of €11.5M ($12.7M) for therapeutic HIV vaccine

Funds will support proof of concept studies for lead candidate HTI immunogen as a therapeutic vaccine against HIV infection
By AELIX Therapeutics | January 11, 2016

Barcelona, January 11, 2016

Aelix Therapeutics, a drug development company specialized in the discovery and development of immunotherapies against HIV infection, today announces that it has completed a Series A funding round of €11.5 M ($12.7 M). Ysios Capital, a Spanish investment fund, led the round. The fundraising was also supported by a syndicate of new investors including Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc. (“JJDC”), and Caixa Capital Risc, the venture capital division of Spain’s leading financial group, ‘la Caixa’.

With this fundraising, the company welcomes four new board members: Dr. Karen Wagner from Ysios Capital, José Antonio Mesa from Caixa Capital Risc, Jordi Naval, co- founder of the company, and Jeanne Bolger from JJDC.

The proceeds will support the development of the HTI immunogen as a therapeutic vaccine against HIV infection up to the completion of a Phase 2 proof-of-concept efficacy trial in HIV-infected individuals. The HTI immunogen has the potential to become the first immunotherapy to produce a ‘functional cure’ for HIV infection. It works by eliciting an effective T-cell immune response to the virus in vaccinated individuals. It is estimated that more than 36.9 million people in the world are HIV-positive, with 2 million new cases in 2014.

“We believe that Aelix’s innovative approach, based on a disruptive design of a T-cell immunogen that is able to elicit a strong, broad and focused response against HIV, has the potential to radically transform the treatment of HIV infection, still one of the largest health problems in the world,” said Karen Wagner from Ysios Capital. “We were impressed by the science and the preclinical data supporting the HTI immunogen. We believe that this may indeed change the future of how HIV infection is treated and also help to improve the health of millions of people globally.”