University of Montréal

Proceeds support strategic development and clinical entry of lead Cryptigen immunotherapeuticsCAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom and MONTREAL, Oct. 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Epitopea, a transatlantic cancer immunotherapeutics company developing accessible off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies, announces the closing of a USD $31 million pre-Series A financing. The pre-Series A financing brings the total capital raised by Epitopea to over USD $45 million. New investors Investissement Québec, adMare BioInnovations and Jonathan Milner join existing investors Advent Life Sciences, CTI Life Sciences, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, the Harrington Discovery Institute, IRICoR and Novateur Ventures, all of whom also participated in this financing round. Dr. Alan C. Rigby, Epitopea’s CEO, said, “We believe that more durable cancer therapies are needed to transform the lives of cancer patients diagnosed with hard-to-treat solid tumors where overall survival is still poor for most patients. We continue to make significant strides toward the clinic, which has strengthened investor enthusiasm, and resulted in an over-subscribed pre-Series A in support of our forward-looking mission and vision. This additional financing will support strategic pre-clinical discovery in solid tumors of interest while accelerating our near-term clinical development plans for Epitopea’s next generation, tumor selective, off-the-shelf, RNA-based immunotherapies that we believe have the potential to extend the durability of clinical response in patients.” “In this round we would like to warmly welcome new investors Investissement Québec, adMare BioInnovations and Jonathan Milner, whose participation complements the continued passionate support of our existing transatlantic investor syndicate. This pre-Series A raise provides the necessary finances to accelerate our development campaigns and transition to a clinical-stage company with a focused commitment of delivering our transformational RNA cancer immunotherapy into the clinic in 2026,” he added. Satish Jindal, Ph.D., General Partner with Advent Life Sciences added, “As a founding investor of Epitopea, we are pleased to continue our robust support of the company as it makes major strides in exploiting its proprietary CryptoMap™ platform to identify novel targets that can serve as the basis for the development of a range of ground-breaking cancer immunotherapies. Through our investment in this exciting and growing company, we look forward to Epitopea advancing a first off-the-shelf RNA cancer immunotherapy into the clinic, which could bring significant improvements to cancer patients’ quality and duration of life.” “adMare is thrilled to invest in Epitopea and support the development of their highly differentiated RNA therapeutic platform. Epitopea’s innovative approach to cancer treatment aligns with our mission to drive scientific progress and bring transformative therapies to patients. We look forward supporting the growth of this promising company,” said Frédéric Lemaître Auger, Vice President Investments at adMare BioInnovations. “Alongside other key players in the financial ecosystem, Investissement Québec is proud to participate in this round of funding designed to accelerate preclinical stages and research into cancer immunotherapies. Our support will not only promote the development of homegrown expertise in Québec, but also help drive the growth of a promising young Montréal business at the heart of the strategic life-sciences sector,” said Bicha Ngo, President and CEO, Investissement Québec. Notes To Editors Contact information EpitopeaDr. Alan C. Rigby – CEOAlan.Rigby@epitopea.com Scius Communications Katja Stout+44 7789 435990katja@sciuscommunications.com Daniel Gooch+44 7747 875479Daniel@sciuscommunications.com About Epitopea Epitopea is a transatlantic cancer immunotherapeutics company developing accessible off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies for use in hard-to-treat cancers by targeting a new class of untapped tumor-specific antigens, which are known as Cryptigen™ TSAs, that are broadly shared across multiple patients with the same tumor type. The company has created an extensive library of novel Cryptigen™ TSAs, discovered by its proprietary CryptoMap™ platform that leverages immunopeptidomics, genomics, and a bioinformatics pipeline, allowing the identification of aberrantly-expressed, tumour-specific antigens (aeTSA’s) that are hidden within cancer’s ’junk’ DNA. These hidden Cryptigen™ TSAs were first discovered through research led by Drs. Claude Perreault and Pierre Thibault at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the Université de Montréal. Epitopea is backed by leading life science investors including Advent Life Sciences, CTI Life Sciences, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Le Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, adMare BioInnovations, Jonathan Milner, the Harrington Discovery Institute, IRICoR and Novateur Ventures. To date the company has raised financing of more than USD $45 million. Epitopea was founded in 2021 and consists of sister companies based in Cambridge, UK and in Montreal, Canada. For additional information, please visit www.epitopea.com and follow us on LinkedIn. About Investissement Québec Investissement Québec’s mission is to play an active role in Quebec’s economic development by stimulating business innovation, entrepreneurship, and business acquisitions, as well as growth in investment and exports. Operating in all the province’s administrative regions, the Corporation supports the creation and growth of businesses of all sizes with investments and customized financial solutions. It also assists businesses by providing consulting services and other support measures, including technological assistance available from Investissement Québec Innovation. In addition, through Investissement Québec International, the Corporation prospects for talent and foreign investment, and assists Quebec businesses with export activities. About adMare BioInnovations With a strong track record of globally competitive scientific discovery, Canadian life sciences are primed to lead the world. To make this a reality, adMare BioInnovations uses its scientific and commercial expertise, specialized R&D infrastructure, and seed capital to build strong life sciences companies, develop robust ecosystems, and foster industry-ready talent. It re-invests its returns into the Canadian industry to ensure its long-term sustainability. adMare has helped build 36 companies, of which 25 are still active. These companies have attracted $2.4 billion of risk capital, have a combined value of $5.7 billion, and have created around 1,000 jobs in Canada. Our dynamic Montreal and Vancouver Innovation Centers have been home to 48 life science companies to date, with the 27 current resident companies employing over 350 life sciences professionals. The adMare Academy has trained more than 750 alumni — 92% of whom are employed in the life sciences industry. For more information, please visit www.admarebio.com.

MONTREAL, Sept. 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Epitopea, a transatlantic cancer immunotherapy company, and CQDM are proud to announce the launch of a collaborative research project between Epitopea and Université de Montréal (UdeM), a leading Canadian research institution renowned for scientific innovation and technology transfer. Together, they will examine the feasibility of developing new immunotherapies to effectively treat patients with lung and ovarian cancers. This collaborative program was made possible by a grant of Canadian $1,499,457 from the government of Quebec. CryptoMapTM is a platform resulting from the work of Professors Claude Perreault and Pierre Thibault at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of UdeM. This platform has already allowed identification of non-mutated tumor antigens, uniquely expressed by cancer cells present in patients with the same type of cancer, called CryptigensTM. During this project, novel CryptigenTM sets will be identified from patients with diverse origins enabling the creation of universal RNA-coding cancer vaccines targeting this new class of antigens. Epitopea will validate this unique approach to stimulate the immune system to precisely recognize and destroy cancer cells more rapidly and effectively. This project has the potential to ‘unveil’ an unprecedented collection of CryptigensTM, an approach that distinguishes Epitopea from other cancer vaccine companies. Based on these data, Epitopea will be positioned to develop new RNA-based immunotherapies from this vast collection of patients samples and advance these innovative products into clinical trials. Epitopea's mission aligns perfectly with Quebec's initiatives to develop expertise in the field of RNA vaccines, as was highlighted in the recent AReNA announcement, Quebec's new RNA cluster, which aims to position Quebec as a leader in RNA-based therapies(1). “Our government is pleased to support CQDM’s initiative to facilitate research into new RNA-targeting therapies for the treatment of various forms of cancer. Québec is a global centre for innovation in the life sciences, and we remain committed to pushing forward on behalf of all Quebecers who are affected by cancer in one way or another,” said Christine Fréchette, Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy, Minister responsible for Regional Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Greater Montreal Area. “We are very pleased to partner with CQDM, UdeM, and our scientific co-founders, Drs. Perreault and Thibault to further extend the patient population that could potentially benefit from Epitopea’s transformative approach to treating cancer,” commented Epitopea’s CEO, Alan C. Rigby. “Epitopea will initially deploy these CryptigensTM in an off-the-shelf cancer vaccine approach, which we believe offers significant competitive advantages over personalized cancer vaccines being developed by many other organizations in the RNA immunotherapy ecosystem. Thanks to its refined versatility, we believe that the CryptoMapTM platform developed at UdeM could be applied to a wide range of tumor types, positively impacting patient responses in Quebec and across the globe.” "CQDM is proud to support a project that could transform the lives of cancer patients by providing accessible and effective RNA therapeutic solutions for difficult-to-treat diseases. This innovative collaboration between the Université de Montréal and Epitopea illustrates Quebec's dynamism as a world leader in immunotherapy research. Not only will this project strengthen our understanding of cancer treatments, it will also position Quebec as a key player in the global vaccine and RNA therapy industry," said Diane Gosselin, President and CEO of CQDM. Reference: (1) https://cqdm.org/en/2024/06/05/quebec-launches-arena-to-become-a-global-leader-in-rna-therapies/ About CQDM Biopharma innovation facilitatorCQDM is a not-for-profit biopharmaceutical research consortium whose mission is to support and facilitate multi-stakeholder collaborative research and development aimed at accelerating the translation or transformation of innovative technologies into solutions for unmet medical needs, while generating significant spin-offs for the Quebec and Canadian economies. For more information, visit cqdm.org/ and join us on Twitter/X @CQDM_Canada and LinkedIn.About Epitopea Epitopea is a transatlantic cancer immunotherapeutics company developing accessible off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies for use in hard-to-treat cancers by targeting a new class of untapped tumor-specific antigens, which are known as CryptigenTM TSAs, that are broadly shared across multiple patients with the same tumor type. The company has created an extensive library of novel CryptigenTM TSAs, discovered by its proprietary CryptoMapTM platform that leverages immunopeptidomics, genomics, and a bioinformatics pipeline, allowing the identification of aberrantly-expressed, tumour-specific antigens (aeTSA’s) that are hidden within cancer’s ’junk’ DNA. These hidden CryptigenTM TSAs were first discovered through research led by Drs. Claude Perreault and Pierre Thibault at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the Université de Montréal. Epitopea is backed by leading transatlantic life science investors including Advent Life Sciences, CTI Life Sciences, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Le Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, the Harrington Discovery Institute, Novateur Ventures, and Investissement Québec. The company has raised financing of more than $13 Million USD. Epitopea was founded in 2021 and consists of sister companies based in Cambridge, UK and in Montreal, Canada. For additional information, please visit www.epitopea.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn. About Université de Montréal Deeply rooted in Montreal and dedicated to its international mission, Université de Montréal is a leading research university worldwide and among the five best French-language universities. With its affiliated schools, Polytechnique Montréal and HEC Montréal, UdeM attracts over $650 million in research funding every year, making it one of Canada’s top university research hubs. UdeM has over 67,000 students, 2,300 professors and researchers, and an active global network of 450,000 alumni. For additional information, please visit: umontreal.ca/ For further information Julia SerafinoMarketing Communication CoordinatorCQDMTel: +1 438-543-9498jserafino@cqdm.org Geneviève O'MearaSpokesperson and Senior AdvisorUniversité de MontréalTel: +1 514-343-7704genevieve.omeara@umontreal.ca Scius Communications (for Epitopea)Katja StoutTel: +44 7789 435990katja@sciuscommunications.com

BURNABY, British Columbia--( BUSINESS WIRE )--Dexcom, Inc. (NASDAQ: DXCM), a global leader in real-time continuous glucose monitoring (rtCGM) for people with diabetes, announced today that its latest innovation, the Dexcom G7 Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) System, will be added to the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) Public Prescription Drug Insurance Plan. Québec residents living with type 1 diabetes who meet the eligibility criteria will now be able to receive coverage for Dexcom G7.* “Today’s announcement from RAMQ showcases its commitment to improving the lives of those living with type 1 diabetes across the province. We are thrilled that more Québec residents will be able to experience the Dexcom difference,” said André Côté, Vice President and General Manager of Dexcom Canada. Launched in Canada in 2023, Dexcom G7 is the most accurate CGM system available, †,1 clinically proven to lower A1C and increase time in range. 2-6 Designed to take the guesswork out of day-to-day diabetes management, Dexcom G7 allows the user to easily see their glucose levels and where they’re headed, so they can make informed decisions about insulin, food and activity in the moment, with no routine fingersticks ǂ or scanning required. “It is critical that we continue to provide access to the most advanced continuous glucose monitoring technology to support patients managing diabetes, and ultimately improve their health outcomes and quality of life,” says Dr. Remi Rabasa-Lhoret, Director, Metabolic Diseases Research Unit, Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal. “CGM technology is a game changer. It can simplify diabetes management, giving people who live with diabetes an incredible tool to improve a condition that changes every day.” Now through RAMQ, thousands of eligible Québec residents living with type 1 diabetes will have access to the latest technology in continuous glucose monitoring systems, helping to reduce the burden of out-of-pocket costs for essential diabetes tools and make modern management solutions more accessible. The majority of Quebec’s top private insurers already cover Dexcom G7 for individuals with type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes on insulin. §,7 “As a Dexcom CGM user, this announcement means that I can more feasibly access the technology that has changed how I manage my type 1 diabetes for the better,” says Serge Turcotte, a Québec resident who has lived with type 1 diabetes for 8 years. “For someone as active as I am, I must say that using Dexcom G7 has been a game-changer in how I deal with diabetes and can still be me. Being able to see my glucose levels in real-time and knowing I can be alerted before a dangerous low gives me so much more peace of mind. I am so grateful that such technology exists now.” Today’s news is the latest in a series of provincial announcements regarding coverage for Dexcom CGM systems. New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nova Scotia have recently adapted their respective provincial health programs to include or expand coverage for Dexcom G7. To learn more about Dexcom G7 and the RAMQ coverage eligibility criteria , along with private insurance plans that cover Dexcom G7, visit dexcom.com. About Dexcom, Inc. Dexcom, Inc. empowers people to take control of health through innovative continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., and with operations across Canada, Dexcom has emerged as a leader of diabetes care technology. By listening to the needs of users, caregivers, and providers, Dexcom works to simplify and improve diabetes management around the world. For more information about Dexcom CGM, visit www.dexcom.com . _______________________________________ 1 Dexcom, data on file, 2023. 2 Beck RW, et al. JAMA. 2017;317(4):371-378. 3 Beck RW, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2017;167(6):365-374. 4 Martens T, et al. JAMA. 2021;325(22):2262-2272. 5 Laffel LM, et al. JAMA. 2020;323(23):2388-2396. 6 Welsh JB, et al. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2024;18(1):143-7. 7 Dexcom, data on file, 2024. * Individuals who do not have a compatible smart device are eligible for a free G7 Receiver and should contact Dexcom Customer Service at 1-844-832-1810. † When compared with CGM systems commercially available in Canada as of July 2024. ǂ Fingersticks required for diabetes treatment decisions if symptoms or expectations do not match readings. § Eligibility and coverage vary by policy, plan, and payor. For details, visit www.dexcom.com/en-CA/coverage .