Ganymed Pharmaceuticals AG, German-Swiss cancer drug start-up, has secured its first-round venture capital financing.

With Zurich's Nextech Venture, an early stage oriented fund manager, as lead investor, the drug discovery firm was able to secure SFr12.9 million from an international syndicate of life science venture capital firms.

The syndicate includes Süd Venture Capital Investition GmbH & Co.KG, Future
Capital AG, Venture Incubator AG, the only other Swiss investor, the Investitions-und Strukturbank Rheinland-Pfalz, and TechnologieBeteilligungsGesellschaft.

Ganymed Pharmaceuticals was founded 2001 by an international team of scientists and oncologists from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich. The company will be based in Mainz, Germany.

Ganymed`s mission is to develop "tailored medical solutions for cancer and infectious disease based on highly selective disease specific antigens as targets for molecular and immunological therapeutics and diagnostics," according to the firm.

Its discovery method may be used to address other diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes mellitus, Morbus Crohn and others, according to the start-up's publicly stated vision.

by Valerie Thompson

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