Pleco Therapeutics injected with €17.3 million to boost cancer treatment

Dutch clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Pleco Therapeutics has raised €17.3 million in funding to develop a portfolio of cancer therapies. The Series A round was backed by Oost NL, Hyloris Pharmaceuticals and Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO). 

The health tech startup aims to extend the life span and enhance patients’ quality of life through its Plecoid therapies designed to increase the effectiveness of current cancer treatments. The company claims its Plecoid therapies have the potential to positively change the balance of protein expression within the cancer microenvironment by removing the burden of toxic metals within the cell. This will help improve the effectiveness of existing chemotherapy.

The company recently announced its expansion in the U.S. with Pleco Therapeutics USA based in Newark, New Jersey.

Going forward, the funding will bolster its expansion in the U.S. The startup will also use the new cash to complete the development of PTX-061’s regulatory dossier in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) and to gear up for submission to the FDA and EMA by 2024.

Ivo Timmermans, CEO of Pleco Therapeutics, said: “The new funding will help us to boost the development for the treatment of AML, a blood cancer that carries a very poor prognosis.”