ErVimmune, a BioTech firm out of Lyon creating most cancers vaccines and cell therapies that focus on ‘chilly tumors’ – cancers that don’t reply to present immunotherapies – right this moment proclaims the primary closing of its €17 million ($19.8 million) Sequence A financing.
Current shareholder Seventure Companions participated, alongside new investor SPRIM World Investments (Singapore). This financing may also allow ErVimmune to leverage further non-dilutive funding from Bpifrance and the France 2030 programme.
“This funding marks a important milestone in bringing our off-the-shelf most cancers vaccine to the clinic,” says Prof Stéphane Depil, MD, PhD, founder and board member at ErVimmune. “Our strategy has the potential to remodel therapy choices for sufferers with difficult-to-treat cancers.”
The 2025-2026 funding panorama signifies continued investor curiosity in European oncology and immuno-oncology corporations, offering context for ErVimmune’s Sequence A.
On the bigger, later-stage finish of the market, UK-based Artios Pharma raised €99 million to broaden its precision oncology pipeline, whereas Germany’s Tubulis secured €308 million to advance its antibody–drug conjugate platform.
France has additionally recorded important oncology financings, notably Marseille-based Adcytherix, which raised €105 million to progress novel ADC candidates, highlighting sustained home funding into most cancers therapeutics.
Nearer in scale to ErVimmune’s spherical are earlier-stage financings reminiscent of Germany’s T-CURX, which raised €17.7 million to help the event of latest most cancers therapies, and Switzerland-based Hedera Dx, which secured €15 million in Sequence A funding centered on bettering entry to trendy most cancers care.
Oncology and adjoining BioTech rounds throughout this era signify roughly €870 million in funding, positioning ErVimmune’s Sequence A within the low-mid vary of a broader circulation of capital into each massive, late-stage oncology platforms and smaller, clinic-enabling immuno-oncology programmes.
“This monetary backing allows us to speed up the event of our lead vaccine candidate ErVac01,” provides Nathalie Donne, EMBA, CEO of ErVimmune. “We’re excited to maneuver ahead into our first-in-human scientific part and to construct the foundations for a broader therapeutic platform.”
Based in 2019, ErVimmune is a spin-off from the Centre Léon Bérard that specialises in creating therapeutic vaccines concentrating on new households of ‘unconventional’ tumor antigens derived from human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs).
Due to their similarity to viral protein fragments recognised as overseas by the immune system, HERV-derived antigens are prime targets, shared by totally different tumors, for the event of most cancers vaccines and T-cell based mostly immunotherapies, particularly in tumors that reply poorly to present therapies.
The primary indications signify two main unmet medical wants: triple-negative breast most cancers (TNBC), accounting for about 15% of breast most cancers instances worldwide and recognized for its aggressivity, and ovarian most cancers, the deadliest most cancers amongst ladies globally.
“We’re delighted to proceed supporting ErVimmune because it enters this important scientific part,” shares Isabelle de Crémoux, CEO and managing associate at Seventure Companions. “The corporate is opening a brand new frontier in most cancers immunotherapy. Advancing ErVac01 into the clinic is a decisive step towards translating this progressive vaccine platform into tangible advantages for sufferers.”
The Sequence A financing will drive the scientific improvement of ErVac01, ErVimmune’s lead candidate, a heterologous vaccine formulation containing a set of HERV-derived epitopes, designed to cowl nearly all of the worldwide inhabitants by way of HLA alleles (e.g. >80 % in Asia and >95 % in Europe).
By deciding on antigens which can be shared throughout sufferers and tumors, the ensuing vaccine could be manufactured as a ready-to-use product somewhat than a personalised remedy. That is geared toward ‘chilly’ tumors reminiscent of triple‑destructive breast most cancers or ovarian most cancers, which presently reply poorly to checkpoint inhibitors.
The funding will help the execution of a first-in-human scientific trial, a pivotal step towards establishing the protection and immunogenicity of the vaccine.
“We’re desirous to help ErVimmune’s lead programme, ErVac01, because it enters its first scientific research,” provides Michael Shleifer, founding associate at SPRIM World Investments. “This financing marks an inflection level in validating ErVimmune’s proprietary antigen discovery platform, heralding a brand new period of shared, off-the-shelf most cancers immunotherapies. A profitable end result will allow the era of successive waves of proprietary therapeutic candidates concentrating on untapped HERV antigens throughout a number of oncology indications.”
Since inception, ErVimmune has obtained monetary help from Bpifrance, Cancéropôle Lyon Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). On the finish of 2020, Seventure Companions invested in a Seed funding, additionally backed in 2022 by grants from Bpifrance and ANR, and in November 2023 by €2.5 million in a grant obtained from the EIC Accelerator. In 2024, the corporate was chosen to learn from help from the Paris Saclay Most cancers Cluster (PSCC) and in 2025 from the NETVA programme.
In parallel with this financing, ErVimmune proclaims the appointment of Eric Halioua as govt chairman of its board of administrators, strengthening the corporate’s governance and strategic management because it enters the scientific improvement stage.
“ErVimmune is coming into a defining part in its improvement now it has the monetary means to advance into the clinic,” says Eric Halioua. “I look ahead to working carefully with the crew and the board to help scientific execution, strategic partnerships and long-term worth creation to construct a number one immuno-oncology firm.”
The Sequence A spherical stays open to further buyers and can additional allow the development of ErVac01 in triple-negative breast most cancers and ovarian most cancers, in addition to the event of future therapeutic candidates concentrating on new HERV-derived antigens in further oncology indications.
