Founded
2017
Founder & CEO
Andreas Katopodis
% Shareholding
38%
Stage
Pre-clinical
Number of employees
25+
Raised in a Series B financing in December 2021
CHF110m

Unless stated all financials at 31 December 2023.

Anaveon website

Anaveon is a pre-clinical phase biopharmaceutical company that specialises in the development of treatments for diseases with immune system dysfunction.

Anaveon is focused on developing biologics to modulate the function of cytokines with the potential to provide substantial therapeutic benefit to cancer patients. Its vision is to develop novel immune therapies benefiting patients suffering from a wide variety of diseases with immune pathology.

Anaveon is developing selective IL-2 Receptor agonists, which have the potential to therapeutically enhance a patient’s immune system to respond to tumours. In the body, human IL-2 stimulates a type of immune cell, called a T-cell, to multiply and become activated.  Activated T-cells are able to attack tumours and, consistent with this approach, human IL-2 is already approved as a therapeutic for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and renal cancer; however human IL-2 has severe, dose-limiting side effects due to lack of specificity and a short half-life that requires frequent infusions. Syncona is supportive of the company’s pre-clinical programme of its next generation asset, ANV600, which targets IL-2 to tumour fighting immune cells in the tumour microenvironment and which we believe may have the potential to demonstrate superior efficacy.

Investment thesis

  • Developing a selective IL-2 agonist with improved administration and toxicity burden
  • Wide potential utility across multiple oncology indications in wider markets*

Unmet medical need

  • Human IL-2 approved as a medicine for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and renal cancer, but with a cumbersome administration schedule and significant toxicity**

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4938354/

** https://www.cancernetwork.com/view/managing-toxicities-high-dose-interleukin-2 

Syncona team

Alex Hamilton

Alex Hamilton

Alex is an Investment Partner of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He is a Director on the Boards of SwanBio Therapeutics and Anaveon. Previously, he was a member of the Healthcare Investment Banking team at Jefferies, where he worked on a range of financings and mergers and acquisitions across the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Alex has a PhD in Immunology from the Univers…
View Alex's biography
Position
Board member
Qualification
PhD
Alice Renard

Alice Renard

Alice is an Investment Partner of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. She is also currently Head of Operations at Purespring Therapeutics and works closely with Anaveon. Alice serves as an Observer on the Board of Purespring and Anaveon. Prior to joining Syncona, Alice was an Investment Banking Analyst within Barclays’ Healthcare Corporate Finance and M&A team, where she worked on transactions…
View Alice's biography
Position
Board observer
Qualification
PhD

Anaveon leaders and founders

Anaveon publications & presentations

Show presentations from

Anaveon Corporate Presentation

Download PDF (1.54Mb)

Other pre-clinical portfolio companies