[Funding alert] Grenoble-based PDC*line Pharma Secures €8.1million in Funding

The project aims to develop PDCneo+, a personalized therapeutic vaccine for colorectal cancer using PDCline Pharma's innovative PDC*line technology. Targeting unique neoantigens in each colorectal cancer patient, PDC*neo+ represents a groundbreaking approach in cancer immunotherapy.

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Globally, colorectal cancer (CRC) is among the most prevalent and deadly cancers, with a high recurrence rate post-surgery and chemotherapy.

PDC*neo+ is designed as an adjuvant treatment to prevent relapses in high-risk patients with stages II, III and certain stage IV CRCs. Its action post-chemotherapy potentially makes it a pioneering treatment in CRC.

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The main goal of the project is to confirm the clinical feasibility and safety of PDC*neo+ in a phase I trial. This initiative is expected to have a significant impact on CRC patient care, alongside broader economic and societal benefits.

Eric Halioua, CEO of PDCline Pharma said, “We are very happy that our project has been selected by the Walloon region. The subsidies and collaborative effort of the partners in the consortium will speed-up the launch of a first phase I clinical trial with PDCneo+, the personalized vaccine based on PDC*line cells loaded with neoantigens to treat CRC patients, positioning our technology in the very promising field of neoantigen-based cancer vaccines,”

Jean-Pol Detiffe, founder and chief strategy and innovation officer at OncoDNA said, “We are very thrilled to be part of this innovative project and clinical trial. It acknowledges our recent proficiency in the discovery of neoantigens and our robust experience in liquid biopsy monitoring by detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA),".

Claude Dedry, CEO of salamanderU said, “We are very enthusiastic about participating in this collaborative project and bringing the production of PDC*Neo+ closer to the patient. Through this project, salamanderU strengthens its position as a designer and manufacturer of innovative isolators for the manufacture of ATMP,”

Marc Van den Eynde and Jean-Pascal Machiels, oncologists at UCLouvain (Cliniques universitaires St-Luc) said, “We are very pleased and motivated to take part in this exciting and collaborative project. With our expertise, we will contribute to characterizing the immunogenicity of colorectal cancers and to the development and recruitment of patients for this clinical trial,”.

Christos Sotiriou said, “We are delighted to be involved in this interesting collaborative project. Leveraging our expertise in various ‘omics’ technologies, such as single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, we will delve into the tumor microenvironment of colorectal cancers. Our objective is to develop predictive biomarkers for vaccine response and actively contribute to patient recruitment for the clinical trial, gastrointestinal oncologist and clinical researcher at Institut Jules Bordet, Hopital Universitaire de Bruxelles (HUB) and Bordet Cancer Research Laboratory.

About PDC*line Pharma

Founded in 2014 as a spin-off of the French Blood Bank (EFS), PDCline Pharma is a Belgian-French clinical-stage biotech company that develops an innovative class of active immunotherapies for cancers, based on a GMP-grade allogeneic therapeutic cell line of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells (PDCline).

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