Cytheris completes €12 million Series D financing

Cytheris SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development of new therapies for immune modulation, today announced that it has completed a €12 million ($15 million) Series D financing. New investor, CDC Entreprises (France), acting for the Strategic Investment Fund (FSI), participated in the round along with existing investors Bioam Gestion (France), Caisse de dépôt et Placement du Québec (Canada), CDC Innovation (France), Crédit Agricole Private Equity (France), and Forbion Capital Partners (The Netherlands). Jones Day Paris served as Company counsel.

“We are delighted to welcome CDC Entreprises as an investor and Marie-Laure Garrigues as a board observer and are especially grateful for the continued support from our existing investors”

In conjunction with the CDC Entreprises investment, Marie-Laure Garrigues, Director of Investments at CDC Entreprises, will join the Cytheris board of directors as an observer.

"Cytheris has an outstanding team working on the new frontier of immunotherapy, one of the most exciting areas of current medical development," said Ms. Garrigues. "We appreciate the opportunity to support the company's efforts in the critical areas of unmet medical need represented by HIV, hepatitis and oncology."

Proceeds from this financing will be used to accelerate development in the Company's IL-7 (CYT107) clinical programs in HIV, HBV, HCV and oncology.

"We are delighted to welcome CDC Entreprises as an investor and Marie-Laure Garrigues as a board observer and are especially grateful for the continued support from our existing investors," said Michel Morre, DVM, President and CEO of Cytheris. "This financing provides us with the resources to aggressively advance CYT107 through clinical trials, particularly in the HIV and hepatitis markets."

"After demonstrating the quality of IL-7 induced immune reconstitution in most patients treated in our HIV studies, we are now focusing these investigations on showing that repeated cycles of IL-7 can induce long term or definitive immune restoration," added Dr. Morre, "while our HCV and HBV studies are aimed at documenting the production of specific antiviral T cells, potentially offering long term protection."