This fund, launched in May 2017 and finally closed in May 2019, targets later-stage European life science companies in drug development, medtech, diagnostics and eHealth / mHealth.
€120 million of commitments secured
The fund secured over €120 million of commitments; final closing took place in May 2019.
Portfolio
SWORD Health
Sector: Digital Health
Country: US, Portugal
SWORD Health is a technology company on a mission to improve access to quality, affordable healthcare. The company’s flagship product, SWORD Phoenix, is a sophisticated, comprehensive and user-friendly motor rehabilitation system designed to grant patients access to intensive, task-specific rehabilitation protocols from the comfort of their homes. Rehabilitation is a segment of the healthcare value chain that has remained virtually untouched for the last 50 years and with a aging population is becoming a burden to healthcare systems worldwide. SWORD Phoenix is positioned to disrupt the way rehabilitation is delivered to patients significantly improving outcomes and reducing cost. SWORD Health was founded in 2014 and is led by CEO Virgílio Bento. SWORD Health’s products are used around the world, including the USA, Canada, Australia, Norway, and the company is headquartered in New York.
Guy Geldhof, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Marc Lohrmann, Managing Vesalius Biocapital III
Forendo Pharma
Sector: Drug Development
Country: Finland
Forendo Pharma is a privately held drug development company, with core competences in modulating tissue specific hormone mechanisms. The company was founded in 2013 by leading academic endocrinology experts and Finnish drug development pioneers. Forendo is supported by strong international investors: Novo Seeds, Karolinska Development, Novartis Venture Fund, M Ventures, Vesalius Biocapital III, Innovestor and Sunstone. The company’s pipeline includes HSD17B1 inhibitor (phase I) for the treatment of endometriosis; dual HSD inhibitors (discovery) for the treatment of broader gynecological conditions.
Stéphane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Marc Lohrmann, Managing Vesalius Biocapital III
Mecuris GmbH
Sector: Medtech
Country: Germany
Mecuris teams up with certified prosthetists and orthotists (CPOs) to move orthopaedic care into the digital age. Bringing together 3D technologies into one intuitive Mecuris Solution Platform the company found a way to simplify the CPOs work and transform the way to design and use orthopaedic devices. Mecuris enriches wearers‘ lives by enabling medical professionals to design their product ideas on our intuitive digital platform – without any CAD design knowledge. This means patients can quickly regain their mobility, show their individuality and become active again faster. Thanks to full CE-mark and ISO certification, Mecuris‘ products meet the highest safety standards and are reimbursed by all health insurance funds in Germany.
Christian Schneider, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Stéphane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
DEAR Health
Sector: Digital Health
Country: The Netherlands
DEARhealth transforms chronic care towards a quadruple aim: improve patient experience, measurable health outcomes, provider well-being and cost control. The DEARhealth platform and modelling approach enable patient-centric, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered health pathways for chronic care.
DEARhealth is a health-AI spin-out from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and has headquarters in Los Angeles and Amsterdam.
Marc Lohrmann, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Stéphane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Tonic App, S.A.
Sector: Digital Health
Country: Portugal
Tonic App is a digital healthcare tool designed to help the medical community diagnose and treat their patients by bringing together all the professional resources they need for their day-to-day work in a single mobile application.
Guy Geldhof, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Christian Schneider, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
OncoDNA – The Cancer Theranostic Company
Sector: Digital Health
Country: Belgium
OncoDNA is an oncology-focused healthcare technology company that combines advanced, comprehensive testing of all clinically relevant cancer biomarkers (DNA, RNA and protein profiles) from both solid and liquid biopsies with a proprietary cancer treatment knowledge database called OncoKDOT which continuously ‘learns‘ from cutting-edge, validated, scientific and medical advances. This one-stop-shop analysis and interpretation service gives oncologists actionable results to enable the selection of treatments tailored to the individual patient‘s cancer profile.
Dr. Guy Geldhof, Managing Vesalius Biocapital III
Dr. Christian Schneider, Managing Vesalius Biocapital III
Topas Therapeutics
Sector: Drug Development
Country: Germany
Topas Therapeutics GmbH is a biotechnology company focused on developing nanoparticle-based therapeutics to address areas of major unmet need, including autoimmune diseases, allergies and anti-drug antibodies. The Topas Particle Conjugates technology platform induces antigen-specific immune tolerance by harnessing the liver‘s natural immunology capabilities. The Company has several proprietary programs; lead product candidate TPM203 in clinical testing for pemphigus vulgaris, an orphan disease. A second program, TPM 501, is being developed for the treatment of celiac disease. Other programs are in anti -drug immune responses, e.g. in gene therapy and with therapeutic proteins.
Marc Lohrmann, Lead Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Stéphane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Catalym
Sector: Drug Development
Country: Germany
CatalYm is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer immunotherapies targeting Growth-and-Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF-15). Apart from its established role in cachexia, GDF-15 has been associated with immunosuppression in tissues and tumors and a rapidly growing body of literature supports the concept that GDF-15 is a major T cell repellent. CatalYm aims to neutralize GDF-15 to turn “cold” tumors “hot” and thereby substantially improving the efficacy of established immunotherapy such as anti-PD1/-PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors. The company’s lead product candidate CTL-002, a neutralizing GDF-15 antibody, is set to enter clinical development in 2020.
Marc Lohrmann, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Stéphane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Rejuvenate Biomed
Sector: Drug Development
Country: Belgium
REJUVENATE Biomed, a biomedical company, is focusing on developing drugs that maintain and restore our natural cell resilience capacity, thereby delaying age-related functional decline. Their platform approach is to identify opportunities to impact the aging process by repositioning Rx products. The lead compound in the company’s pipeline, RJx-01, is a combination of 2 well-known drugs that each have a long record of safety. RJx-01 has gathered enough convincing pre-clinical data of synergistic effects of the drug combination on animal models of aging (c. elegans and mice) to directly start Phase II studies.
REJUVENATE is researching the biology of aging and applying this knowledge to identify safe and well tolerated drugs. Their in silico screening platform allows the selection of Rx drugs that are known to impact one or more cellular pathways involved in aging, alone or in combination. This approach speeds up drug discovery and the development process has led to a pipeline of currently 4 compounds, selected via the Pre-Clinical and Clinical platforms focusing on safety and their efficacy potential.
Stéphane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Marc Lohrmann, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
caresyntax GmbH
Sector: Digital Health
Country: Germany & US
Caresyntax is making surgery smarter and safer. The enterprise-grade digital surgery platform delivers actionable insights to improve patient outcomes by using proprietary software and AI to analyze large volumes of video, audio, images, device data, clinical, and operational data in and around the surgery room.
Dr. Christian Schneider, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Stéphane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Memo Therapeutics AG
Sector: Drug Development
Country: Switzerland
Memo Therapeutics AG is an innovator in the field of antibody discovery and immune repertoire analysis. Exploiting the power of our microfluidic single-cell molecular cloning and screening technologies we engage in antibody discovery across species and indications for proprietary and partnered projects. Its current pipeline features programs in infectious diseases and immuno-oncology.
Christian Schneider, Lead Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Guy Geldhof, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Scenic Biotech
Sector: Drug Developement
Country: The Netherlands
Scenic is pioneering genetic modifiers for the development of new therapies for patients suffering from diseases with an urgent medical need.
Marc Lohrmann, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Stéphane Verdood, Managing Partner Vesalius Biocapital III
Oscar Izeboud, CEO