FRANCE – BiPER Therapeutics, a Strasbourg, France-based preclinical biotechnology company, raised €1.25M in Seed funding.
The round included €300k ($322k) in dilutive funds from WiSeed via WiClub Santé 2, €500k ($544k) in convertible bonds from Bpifrance, and €450k ($483k) in grants as part of the i-Lab innovation award and from the Grand Est region. Alongside the funding, BiPER added Guillaume Vetter-Genoud, director of Quest for health, to the board.Co-founded by CEO Mehdi Chelbi, Stephane Rocchi, Rachid Benhida, and Cyril Ronco, BiPER Therapeutics is a preclinical biotechnology company developing a pipeline of small molecules targeting the global metabolism of cancer. Its drug candidate – BPR001 – selectively targets BiP/GRP78, a key protein involved in cancer cell survival and associated with a poor prognosis for patients. BPR001 triggers cancer cell death through Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress induction.The funds will allow BiPER to work, over the next 15 months, on the preclinical development of BPR001 for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers, and bring it to the Clinical Trial Application (CTA)/Investigational New Drug (IND) stages, with gastric cancer as the primary indication. It will also enable the company to advance its R&D programs in first-in-class Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress inducers. 14/02/2023
