EpilepsyGTx, a Cambridge-based BioTech startup centered on analysis and improvement of gene therapies to deal with refractory epilepsy, right now introduced it has raised €28 million ($33 million) in Collection A financing to advance its lead programme EPY201 via Part 1/2a medical trials.
The spherical included funding from XGEN Enterprise, the British Enterprise Financial institution (who invested €12 million (£10.5 million)), and a world biopharmaceutical firm.
Nicolas Koebel, Chief Government Officer of EpilepsyGTx, says: “Refractory epilepsy is a devastating situation inflicting unpredictable and life-threatening seizures, and affecting hundreds of thousands of sufferers worldwide. Our novel gene remedy EPY201 delivered on to the seizure focus has the potential to cease seizures with a single, minimally invasive administration. In doing so, it is going to change the way in which refractory epilepsy has been handled for many years. We’re proud to have the assist of such excessive calibre traders as we progress into medical trials.”
For context: European funding exercise in 2025 exhibits sustained investor curiosity in neurological and CNS-focused therapeutics, with corporations resembling EG 427 securing €27 million to advance pinpoint genetic medicines for persistent neurological situations, Aerska elevating €17 million to develop RNAi therapeutics for mind ailments, TRIMTECH Therapeutics amassing €28.6 million to progress CNS-penetrant degrader therapies, and Augustine Therapeutics elevating €77.7 million to develop remedies for neurodegenerative and neuromuscular ailments.
Collectively, these rounds signify round €150 million of latest capital getting into the sector this yr.
Inside this panorama, EpilepsyGTx’s Collection A aligns with a wider European push in direction of precision neurology and superior genetic or molecular applied sciences. The presence of one other UK-based firm on this group (TRIMTECH Therapeutics) highlights the nation’s rising focus of CNS-focused biotech R&D, situating EpilepsyGTx’s progress inside an energetic and well-funded innovation ecosystem.
Leandros Kalisperas, Chief Funding Officer, British Enterprise Financial institution, provides: “The UK’s life sciences sector continues to provide world-class innovation, and the Financial institution is dedicated to constructing that momentum. By way of cornerstone commitments to main sector funds and by being the UK’s most energetic late-stage investor, the Financial institution helps IP-rich corporations entry the capital they should scale within the UK.”
Based in 2021, EpilepsyGTx’s mission is to make sufferers with refractory epilepsy seizure-free. We’re creating a portfolio of cutting-edge gene therapies that are primarily based on analysis from the UCL Queen Sq. Institute of Neurology.
EpilepsyGTx raised €8.5 million ($10 million) final yr in pre-Seed and Seed funding led by the UCL Know-how Fund, managed by AlbionVC in collaboration with UCL Enterprise, the commercialisation firm of UCL with participation from Zcube, the enterprise capital arm of Zambon.
Federica Draghi, Managing Companion of XGEN Enterprise, provides: “EpilepsyGTx is pioneering a novel, regionally administered gene remedy method designed to attain focused modulation of epileptogenic mind areas. We consider that localiwed gene supply affords a strong avenue for sturdy and disease-modifying interventions in extreme neurological problems and are excited to assist the corporate as EPY201 progresses towards medical analysis.”
The funding will allow the supply of first-in-human Part 1/2a medical trials to ascertain the security and efficacy of the corporate’s lead gene remedy programme EPY201 in a broad inhabitants of sufferers with focal refractory epilepsy (FRE). EPY201 is an adeno-associated viral (AAV) gene remedy designed to cut back neuronal hyperexcitability.
It’s delivered regionally to the epileptogenic focus of the affected person and due to this fact avoids the problems of systemic supply. EPY201 affords FRE sufferers the prospect of seizure freedom in a single intervention with out resection or ablation of mind tissue and with out the persistent use of a number of antiseizure medicines.
FRE describes a bunch of problems through which sufferers expertise seizures that come up from a particular a part of the mind, resulting in recurrent disabling occasions, cognitive impairment and psychosocial burden. This reportedly impacts about 10 million patients worldwide, including 2 million patients in the US, UK and EU.
EPY201 affords the potential to eradicate seizures in sufferers with FRE with a single intervention, dramatically bettering survival and high quality of life. This affords FRE sufferers the prospect of seizure freedom with out resection or ablation of mind tissue and with out the persistent use of a number of antiseizure medicines.
EpilepsyGTx may also advance a pipeline of gene therapies focusing on refractory epilepsy and problems of neuronal hyperexcitability.
Carmine Circelli, Funding Director, British Enterprise Financial institution, says: “Epilepsy GTx is constructed on world main experience from UCL, pursuing an revolutionary method to modulating neurons in epilepsy and backed by compelling preclinical knowledge. If this mechanism is validated in medical trials, the corporate has the potential to be category-defining in epilepsy therapy, addressing substantial unmet affected person want and presenting a major business alternative.”
