SeaBeLife raises €1.2M ($1.28M) from iXLife fund and historical investors

Professor Jean-Pierre Kinet, chairman of iXLife, joins SeaBeLife’s strategic committee to support regulatory development of the company’s unique drug candidates targeting two regulated cell death pathways

SeaBeLife, a biotech company developing drug candidates intended to block cell necrosis, today announces €1.2M ($1.28M) in additional seed funding from the iXLife fund and business angel networks. These have contributed to the company’s financing in the past and include: Breizh Angels, Angels Santé, WeLike and BAdGE. This latest round sees Professor Kinet, chairman of iXLife, join SeaBeLife’s strategic committee. The company has raised €1.6M ($1.74M) in seed funding from business angels since 2020.
 
This fundraising will help SeaBeLife finance the regulatory development of its drug candidates, notably for acute liver disease and eye disorders, and leverage its unique patented technology that targets two regulated cell death pathways. The funding also enables team expansion, with the hiring of several high-level specialists to set up clinical trials. The company expects to launch a Phase I trial in severe hepatitis in 2024. It is also working to strengthen its strategic partnerships, especially with pharmaceutical companies active in eye disorders, and to optimize its drug candidates with the aim of addressing neurodegenerative diseases by 2025.
 
“We are delighted to welcome Professor Kinet, representing iXLife, to our strategic committee. As a renowned physician with unique experience in building biotech businesses in Europe and the US, Professor Kinet’s support and those of our historical investors, as well as this intermediate funding, will give us the means to use our unique cell preservation and protection technologies in serious liver and eye disorders. In time we will extend them to brain pathologies,” said Morgane Rousselot, CEO and co-founder of SeaBeLife. “With this vision, we are actively preparing for Series A fundraising from venture capital funds, institutional funds and family offices. We aim to continue developing our technology in the treatment of acute liver failure (ALF), serious ophthalmologic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.
 
“iXLife is delighted to become a shareholder in SeaBeLife and to support its innovative strategy of dual targeting of necroptosis and ferroptosis. We are convinced that this one-of-a-kind approach has the potential to protect cells affected by certain disorders, including acute liver disease. Clinical development in this indication is due to kick off in 2024,” said Professor Kinet, chairman and director of the iXLife fund.
 
Prof. Kinet has been an emeritus professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) since 2017. From 1995 to 2017, he was director of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Prior to that, he was head of the Molecular Allergy and Immunology Department at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. Prof. Kinet has authored over 200 publications and is listed as the inventor of 67 families of issued patents. He is known for discovering and characterizing the genes encoding the high-affinity IgE receptor and for cloning the subunits. He is co-founder of AB Science (Euronext: AB) and founder of Astarix (US), since acquired by Heska. Prof. Kinet is a former director of UCB Board and a former member of the UCB scientific advisory board. He received his medical degree at the University of Liège, in Belgium.
 

Published on : 26th September, 2023