Hoersholm, Denmark; April 28, 2015 -Medical Prognosis Institute A/S (MPI.CO) announced today that Oncology Venture (OV) – the drug development arm of MPI has raised more than 6.2 million DKK from private investors. Earlier in March MPI announced that OV and the US based biotech company Lantern Pharma have been awarded an USD 800,000 ICIP grant (funded by The State of Massachusetts and Region Hovedstaden who has Cobis as a lead partner)  for the development of the anticancer drug Irofulven by utilizing MPI’s multi biomarker Drug Response Predictor – DRP. In February OV received an investment from Pre-Seed Innovation (who has Accelerace as lead partner) 3.37 million DKK. As a total this year, Oncology Venture has raised 15,547,000 DKK.

The nominal share capital in Oncology Venture is now 2,196,596. Shareholders with more than 5 % ownership are as follows:

“We are very grateful for the strong financial support which enables Oncology Venture, by the help of MPI’s cutting edge technology, to fund and run focused phase 2 clinical trials. The aim is to identify drugs with too low response rates to beat the gold standard. We then screen patients with the Drug Response Predictor technology to identify which patients are most likely to respond to the individual drug and finally include these patients in a phase 2 trial with the aim of raising the response rate and transform the drug to an approvable product.” Said Professor Peter Buhl Jensen, M.D., CEO of Oncology Venture and MPI.  

“From Accelerace we wish Oncology Venture congratulations with this achievement. We are very happy to see that our investment and close collaboration with Oncology Venture has been part of the development leading to this success. Oncology Venture is now ready to launch the first projects and move them into clinical phase 2 testing in DRP selected patients. If the clinical results are positive, it will be of great value for Oncology Venture – and for the patients.“ Says Peter Birk, Investment Director in Accelerace.

About Oncology Venture
Oncology Venture A/S, a spinout from MPI, is focusing on finding and develop failed cancer drugs by conducting new, targeted-enrollment clinical trials utilizing highly predictive DRP(TM) biomarkers to select, enroll, and treat the right patients and right cancers.

About MPI
Medical Prognosis Institute, Inc. advances personalized medicine by partnering with cancer drug developers to apply its DRP(TM) diagnostic platform to streamline and de-risk clinical trials and drug development via biomarker optimization, patient stratification, and development of companion diagnostics.

About MPI’s multiple biomarker called Drug Response Predictor – DRP
MPI’s lead product, the DRP diagnostic platform, is a tool to develop tumor-derived gene signatures that may predict which cancer patients are highly likely responders to a given anticancer product. The DRP has been tested in 31 trials, where 26 trials showed that drug-specific DRP Biomarkers could predict which patients had a positive effect of the treatment. The DRP(TM) platform has also been externally validated and published in collaboration with leading statisticians at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. The DRP method can be used to design the Clinical Development Plan, i.e. to select which indications are relevant for a given anticancer drug.  Further to and in addition to this, individual patients’ gene patterns can be analyzed as part of a screening procedure for a clinical trial to ensure inclusion of those patients who have a high likelihood of response to the drug. The DRP(TM) platform can be used in all cancer types and has been patented for more than 60 anticancer drugs in the US.

For further information please contact
CEO Peter Buhl Jensen, Professor, MD, PhD
E-mail: [email protected]
Cell Phone: (+45) 21 60 89 22

Certified Advisor: Carsten Yde Hemme, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Strandvejen 44, 2900 Hellerup, Denmark