CatalYm: Euro 50 million Series‑B for development in immuno-oncology

Munich, Germany — Cata­lYm, an inno­va­tive biotech company deve­lo­ping novel immu­no­the­rapy approa­ches against cancer, has successfully closed its €50 million Series B finan­cing. The finan­cing consor­tium, led by lead inves­tor Vesa­lius Bioca­pi­tal III, also includes Novar­tis Venture Fund (NVF), Wachs­tums­fonds Bayern, copa­rion and foun­ding inves­tors Forbion and BioGe­nera­tion Ventures. Repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from Vesa­lius, NVF and Bayern Kapi­tal will join the advi­sory board as new members.

The funding combi­ned with the strong commit­ment of exis­ting and new venture capi­tal inves­tors enables the all-important further deve­lo­p­ment of anti­bo­dies in the field of immuno-onco­­logy. — Baker McKen­zie ’s Life Scien­ces team, led by Julia Braun, advi­sed Cata­lYm on all legal aspects of the Series B financing.

“The times of COVID-19 in parti­cu­lar are an exci­ting period for our client and the indus­try as a whole. Toge­ther with our client and our team of specia­li­zed biotech­no­logy and life scien­ces lawy­ers, we successfully secu­red funds for further rese­arch in the health­care sector with this tran­sac­tion,” commen­ted Coun­sel Julia Braun.

Cata­lYm is a biophar­maceu­ti­cal company deve­lo­ping novel cancer immu­no­the­ra­pies targe­ting growth and diffe­ren­tia­tion factor 15 (GDF-15). The company was estab­lished with start-up funding from Forbion and BGV in 2016 as a spin-off of the Univer­sity Women’s Hospi­tal Würz­burg and based on the work of Prof. Dr. Jörg Wisch­husen. Cata­lYm is led by an expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team with exten­sive exper­tise in immuno-onco­­logy drug deve­lo­p­ment and deal expe­ri­ence, and supported by inter­na­tio­nal venture capitalists.

Baker McKenzie’s Corporate/M&A and Life Scien­ces team regu­larly advi­ses large phar­maceu­ti­cal, finan­cial inves­tor and early stage biotech­no­logy compa­nies on dome­stic and inter­na­tio­nal health­care tran­sac­tions. Most recently, Baker McKen­zie advi­sed, among others, Casdin Capi­tal as lead inves­tor in DNA Script’s USD 50 million exten­ded Series‑B finan­cing round, Chr. Hansen Holding on its acqui­si­tion of Jenne­wein, Cure­Vac on its stra­te­gic mRNA tech­no­logy colla­bo­ra­tion with GSK, LSP Life Science Part­ners on a USD 38.5 million Series‑B finan­cing in DNA Script, Gala­pa­gos on a 10-year global rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment colla­bo­ra­tion with Gilead, Hita­chi Chemi­cal Company, Tokyo, in the acqui­si­tion of German apceth Biopharma, Forbion as lead inves­tor in a EUR 17 million Series‑C equity finan­cing of Omei­cos Thera­peu­tics and in a USD 54 million Series‑A finan­cing of Gotham Thera­peu­tics Corpo­ra­tion, Mundi­pharma in the sale of its Limburg manu­fac­tu­ring facility.

Legal advi­sor Cata­lYm: Baker McKenzie
Lead: Corporate/M&A: Julia Braun (Coun­sel, Munich)
Corporate/M&A: Bert­hold Hummel (Part­ner, Munich), Michelle Karrer, Dr. Julia Rossié (both Asso­ciate, Munich)
Public Law: Anahita Thoms (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf), Alex­an­der Ehrle (Asso­ciate, Berlin)
Anti­trust & Trade: Dr. Jonas Brueck­ner (Coun­sel, Berlin)
Pharma: Dr. Chris­tian Burholt (Part­ner, Berlin)

About Baker McKenzie
Baker McKen­zie advi­ses clients to successfully deal with the chal­lenges of globa­liza­tion. We solve complex legal problems across natio­nal borders and legal fields. Our unique culture — grown over 70 years — enables our 13,000 employees to under­stand local markets while opera­ting inter­na­tio­nally. We use the trus­ting and friendly coope­ra­tion in our inter­na­tio­nal network for the bene­fit of our clients.

In Germany, around 200 lawy­ers with proven profes­sio­nal exper­tise and inter­na­tio­nal expe­ri­ence repre­sent the inte­rests of their clients at the offices in Berlin, Düssel­dorf, Frankfurt/Main and Munich. As one of the leading German law firms, Baker McKen­zie advi­ses natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies and insti­tu­ti­ons in all areas of commer­cial law.