Finnish biopharma firm bags almost EUR 2 million

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Desentum, a biopharmaceutical company developing next generation immunotherapy to fight allergies, has secured funding to advance their treatment targeting birch pollen allergy.

The funding was announced after the company completed a Series A financing round that totalled approximately two million euros. The list of investors consists of Belgian Cascara Ventures, Luxembourgian ACME Investments, Finnish VTT Ventures and Sto-Rahoitus and the founding shareholders.

Most of the money will be used to produce what the company calls “the most prominent birch pollen hypoallergen” and to prepare for preclinical and clinical trials. Desentum will also focus on advancing the preclinical research of other respiratory allergens and developing them into vaccines, without forgetting to secure key intellectual property.

According to Desentum CEO Pekka Mattila, CEO of Desentum, the research groups of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, University of Eastern Finland and Desentum have collaborated for the past decade to develop a completely new type of immunotherapy for treating patients suffering from allergies.

“This model has shown excellent results in laboratory tests,” he tells. “If the hypoallergens prove functional in clinical trials as well, we will have a real opportunity to shorten the time needed for allergen immunotherapy and improve the safety of the treatment. The capital raised now will help Desentum to move forward towards first stage clinical trials.”

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