Cantargia gears up with new CEO and substantial capital injection
Cantargia, a private biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for the treatment of leukemia, announces that Dr. Göran Forsberg will take over the CEO position Furthermore, the company has decided to issue new shares corresponding to 20 MSEK.
Cantargia continues to develop successfully and is happy to announce that Göran Forsberg has been engaged to lead the company to take it into the next important development steps. In addition the long term financial strategy is followed and the company will issue shares corresponding to 20 MSEK directed to the owners of its main shareholder, LU Bioscience AB (LU Bio).
Göran Forsberg has more than 25 years´ experience in both pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He has been with Active Biotech AB since 1998 in various positions, the last years as Chief Business Officer and member of the management team. He has significant experience in development of drug candidates within oncology. Göran Forsberg is taking over the position from the interim CEO, Anki Malmborg Hager.
“I am very pleased to have been offered this opportunity” says Göran Forsberg. “The current team has managed to develop a very promising candidate drug with a high potential. I am looking forward to joining Cantargia at this exciting point in time to lead the next steps in the development of novel treatments for life threatening diseases”.
Cantargia is now entering a new phase in the company development. The lead monoclonal antibody has shown robust antitumor effects as well as solid findings supporting the mechanism of action and is entering late stage preclinical development. Cantargia now aims to increase the focus on clinical development, business development and commercial partnerships where the experience of Göran Forsberg will be of great value.
Lund, 17 June 2014
Cantargia AB
The Board of Directors
About Cantargia AB
Cantargia is based on the original discovery, by Prof Thoas Fioretos and Dr Marcus Järås, that leukemic stem cells in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) express a cell-surface receptor, whereas corresponding normal stem cells do not express this receptor. Stem cells from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) has also been shown to have and upregulation of the receptor. Cantargia uses this receptor, the Interleukin-1 receptor accessory protein (IL1RAP), as the target for development of a novel antibody-based therapy for leukemia. Cantargia is committed to creating and developing antibody therapeutics to revolutionize the treatment of leukemia and attention has been achieved already, both scientifically and from the pharmaceutical community.
Cantargia’s major shareholder is LU Bio with 59,2% ownership. Furthermore Sunstone Capital, the Founders, Innovagen and Microlund are shareholders in the company.
About LU Bio
Founded in May 2007 by Lund University AB, LU Bio is playing an important role in Lund University’s innovation system. Through selective investments and appropriate development plans, combined with experienced management teams, we aim to achieve a significant increase in the value of our investment holdings.
For further information, please contact:
Sven Andréasson, Chairman, Cantargia AB
Tel: +46 701 606060
E-mail: sven@cantargia.com
Cantargia AB (reg.no. 556791-6019) is a biotech company developing an antibody-based cancer treatment, which attacks cancer stem cells as well as mature cancer cells. The original discovery by the research team behind Cantargia was the overexpression of a specific target molecule, IL1RAP, in cancer stem cells in patients with leukaemia that is not found in normal stem cells in the bone marrow. In preclinical studies (in vitro and in vivo) the antibody, targeted at IL1RAP, has been shown to have two potential mechanisms of action, which are complementary. The company has selected a product candidate for future studies in humans. Preclinical trials with Cantargia’s antibodies have shown a potent antileukaemic effect. Parallel studies have shown an even higher expression of IL1RAP in certain solid tumours. Over the coming year Cantargia will be carrying out the studies required for authorisation of clinical trials.
