Cellestia Biotech raises CHF 20 million and elects Melissa Kay Epstein to board

Cellestia Biotech AG today announces the closing of a CHF 20 million Series A financing round. The new funds will be added to the previous CHF 8 million SEED financing and CHF 1 million non-dilutive research grants, bringing the total capital raised to date by Cellestia to CHF 29 million (USD 29 million). Upon closing of the Series A financing, FC Capital and PPF/Sotio will become major shareholders of Cellestia Biotech AG.

Cellestia is progressing the ongoing clinical development program of CB-103, a first-in-class targeted therapy with a novel mode of action. CB-103 is a highly selective oncogene transcription factor inhibitor for precision medicine treatment of various cancers. It will also allow Cellestia to advance its innovative R&D pipeline activities.

Upon closing of the transaction, Melissa Kay Epstein has also been elected to Cellestia’s Board of Directors.

“We thank our existing shareholders for their continued support of Cellestia. It is a great honour for us to welcome both new institutional investors FC Capital and ETP, as well as new private investors in this financing round. The additional capital will enable us to reach important milestones and to continue creating value for our shareholders,” commented Michael Bauer, CEO of Cellestia Biotech AG. “In addition, we all very much look forward to working with Melissa Epstein. Her experience and global network in the intellectual property, corporate law and M&A fields strongly complements Cellestia’s existing Board of Directors.”

“This is an exciting time to become involved with Cellestia. I am proud to join such an experienced management team and a company developing an innovative novel cancer therapy.” said Melissa Epstein.

"Cellestia is at the forefront of developing innovative products addressing unmet medical needs in cancer treatment," said Danny Xiang, founder, managing partner at FC Capital. "Under the leadership of an incredible team and with a strategic focus on anti-cancer drugs modulating the NOTCH signalling pathway, Cellestia is uniquely positioned to realize the potential of this modality to impact patients across the globe.”