Dreamers Startup Ventures signs an agreement to invest up to $1.1M in Oncoheroes Biosciences.

Oncoheroes Biosciences Inc. (“Oncoheroes”), a biotech company exclusively focused on the development of innovative medicines to treat cancer in children and adolescents, today announced that it has closed the first investment with Dreamers Startup Ventures. Under the terms of the agreement, Dreamers Startup Ventures has committed to invest up to $1.1M, disbursed in installments subject to Oncoheroes milestone achievements in the coming months.

The agreement goes beyond a traditional VC investment. Ricardo Garcia, Oncoheroes’ CEO, stated: “This is a great opportunity for Oncoheroes to take advantage of Dreamers Startup Ventures hands-on approach to support our efforts in all directions. We feel honored and acknowledge the responsibility of being the first investment of Dreamers Startup Ventures in the biotech sector.”

Cesare Spadoni, Oncoheroes' Chief Operations Officer added: “This funding is an important financial achievement for Oncoheroes and enables us to focus on continue working on the clinical development plan for volasertib, our first asset in-licensed from Boehringer Ingelheim, and identify two new assets and complete our pipeline”.

Gorka Fius, cofounder of Dreamers Startup Ventures further notes: “From the beginning, we realized that Oncoheroes holds great potential as a biotech company, which made it a very strategic investment for us. The first reason that led us to invest in Oncoheroes is the uniqueness of being 100% focused on developing drugs for pediatric cancer, an estimated niche market of $5-10B/year. We also value the multi-asset portfolio strategy that contributes to diversifying our investment risk and the fact they already have volasertib, a very strong drug candidate in their pipeline. Moreover, Oncoheroes' first-class team has wide expertise over all of the drug development spectrum, a clear strategy, and a very well-defined road map. Finally, we are confident that we are diminishing the risk of our first operation in the biotech sector by investing in the rare disease space, where normally the cost to develop a drug is lower and the time to reach the market is faster.”


About Oncoheroes Biosciences Inc.

Oncoheroes is a ground-breaking biotech company exclusively focused on the discovery and development of better drugs for children and adolescents with cancer. Our vision is to deliver benefits to young cancer patients and create value in the process. The company is headquartered in Boston, US, with a discovery lab in Barcelona, Spain. Oncoheroes is actively looking for in-licensing opportunities in the pediatric oncology space while working to generate new proprietary assets for a number of pediatric cancer indications with high unmet medical needs. The company was co-founded by Ricardo Garcia (serial entrepreneur), Cesare Spadoni (drug development professional), Marc Goldberg (savvy Life Science VC investor) and Marco Muñoz (seasoned fundraiser). The management team is formed by drug development and industry professionals in the US and Europe and the company has already established strong links with the major international pediatric oncology network as well as the childhood cancer community at large.

For more information please visit: oncoheroes.com


About Dreamers Startup Ventures

Dreamers Startup Ventures, based in Bilbao (Spain) and Boston (USA), is led by entrepreneurs Jose Antonio Borge, Eneko Knörr and Gorka Fius, as well as by a group of private investors such us Albia Capital who complete a team with extended experience on inception, management, transformation, acceleration and exit of companies. They support startups in early-stage with global ambition and seek to position themselves in markets in a competitive way. With the participation in technology companies both in Spain and the USA, Dreamers Startup Ventures is positioned as a leader in establishing connections between startups on both sides of the Atlantic, facilitating its rapid growth and completing its strategic plan for future investment.

For more information please visit: http://dreamers-vc.com/

 

 

 

Oncoheroes Biosciences Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH sign exclusive licensing agreement for volasertib

Oncoheroes Biosciences Inc (“Oncoheroes”) and Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH (“Boehringer Ingelheim”) have signed a worldwide, exclusive licensing agreement for volasertib, an investigational anti-cancer compound that was originally discovered and developed by Boehringer Ingelheim. Under the terms of this agreement Boehringer Ingelheim assigns to Oncoheroes the intellectual property of volasertib, with exclusive rights to research, develop, sell and sublicense the compound. Oncoheroes is committed to further develop and commercialize volasertib for pediatric cancer indications.

Volasertib is an inhibitor of Polo-like-kinase 1 (PLK1), an enzyme known to be involved in cancer progression in a number of diseases. The compound was being developed by Boehringer for the treatment of a specific form of leukemia but clinical development activities were halted after a large Phase III study with adult patients failed to meet its primary endpoints. Meanwhile, independent academic groups had generated strong data in support of further developing the drug for rhabdomyosarcoma and a few other pediatric cancer indications. By signing this licensing agreement, Oncoheroes and Boehringer Ingelheim make it possible to continue the clinical development of volasertib to the benefit of younger cancer patients.

Oncoheroes is a Boston-based biotech company exclusively focused on the development of innovative medicines to treat cancer in children and adolescents. The company was co-founded by Ricardo Garcia and Cesare Spadoni, two parents touched by childhood cancer and determined to change the outlook for these young patients.

“This is probably the first example of an investigational compound being specifically repurposed to investigate it as a treatment for a form of childhood cancer. We are committed to identify more such opportunities and also develop our own innovative treatments for children and adolescents with cancer”, jointly stated Ricardo Garcia and Dr Cesare Spadoni, Oncoheroes’ Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively.

The financial details of this deal are not disclosed. Oncoheroes has already established links with international pediatric oncology networks and is actively working to start clinical development activities as soon as possible.


Learn more at our informative webinar on October 15th


About Oncoheroes Biosciences Inc.

Oncoheroes is a ground-breaking biotech company exclusively focused on the discovery and development of better drugs for children and adolescents with cancer. Our vision is to deliver benefits to young cancer patients and create value in the process. The company is headquartered in Boston, US, with a discovery lab in Barcelona, Spain. Oncoheroes is actively looking for in-licensing opportunities in the pediatric oncology space and working to generate new proprietary assets for a number of pediatric cancer indications with high unmet medical needs. The company was co-founded by Ricardo Garcia (serial entrepreneur), Cesare Spadoni (drug development professional), Marc Goldberg (savvy Life Science VC investor) and Marco Muñoz (seasoned fundraiser). The management team is formed by drug development and industry professionals in the US and Europe and the company has already established strong links with the major international pediatric oncology network as well as the childhood cancer community at large.

About Boehringer Ingelheim

Improving the health of humans and animals is the goal of the research-driven pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The focus in doing so is on diseases for which no satisfactory treatment option exists to date. The company therefore concentrates on developing innovative therapies that can extend patients’ lives. In animal health, Boehringer Ingelheim stands for advanced prevention. 

Family-owned since it was established in 1885, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the pharmaceutical industry’s top 20 companies. Some 50,000 employees create value through innovation daily for the three business areas human pharmaceuticals, animal health and biopharmaceuticals. In 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of around 17.5 billion euros. R&D expenditure of almost 3.2 billion euros, corresponded to 18.1 per cent of net sales. 

As a family-owned company, Boehringer Ingelheim plans in generations and focuses on long-term success. The company therefore aims at organic growth from its own resources with simultaneous openness to partnerships and strategic alliances in research. In everything it does, Boehringer Ingelheim naturally adopts responsibility towards mankind and the environment. 

More information about Boehringer Ingelheim can be found on www.boehringer-ingelheim.com or in our annual report: http://annualreport.boehringer-ingelheim.com