EIC Accelerator Open: Four successful submissions in final 2022 round

We are pleased to announce that in the final EIC Accelerator round of 2022, Catalyze supported four successful applicants in preparing their submissions for the EIC Accelerator Open. The successful companies and clients of Catalyze include Protinhi Therapeutics, Dxcover, and iOnctura. You can read more about these exciting companies and their newly funded projects below.

Protinhi Therapeutics

Protinhi Therapeutics, based in Nijmegen (NL), is a preclinical stage biopharma company and dedicated to developing novel broad-spectrum antiviral drugs to treat and prevent viral infectious diseases and help prepare for future pandemics. In their EIC Accelerator project, ATLAS, Protinhi aims to develop the first antiviral treatment against Dengue. There is a dire need for effective treatments against dengue, as annually more than 395 million patients are infected with 100 million developing Dengue fever, while the development of severe Dengue causes 25,000 deaths.

The impact of Dengue in Europe is also rapidly growing due to global travelling and climate change, with >11,000 travel-related cases between 2015-2019, and an increasing number of autochthonous transmissions in France, Spain, and Italy since 2018. In the ATLAS project, Protinhi will initiate first in human studies and follow up proof of concept studies for her clinical candidate against the most common flavivirus, dengue. The dengue clinical data obtained during ATLAS project will support the further development of Protinhi’s clinical candidate to a broad-spectrum antiviral drug against other flaviviruses, including West Nile and Zika.

Visit the Protinhi Therapeutics website

Dxcover

Dxcover Limited, Glasgow (UK), is a clinical stage diagnostics company on a mission to be a world leader in liquid biopsy and artificial intelligence for early detection of cancers and other diseases. Their EIC Accelerator project, EMBRACE, aims at gaining CE IVDR approval for launch of their revolutionary first-in-class Dxcover® Brain Cancer technology – a groundbreaking blood test for brain cancer detection, which fits seamlessly into the current standard-of-care pathway. Current brain cancer diagnostics are highly inefficient, as only 2% of patients referred for imaging actually have brain cancer. The Dxcover® Brain Cancer diagnostic test will provide a much faster and more affordable solution for early cancer detection.

Visit the Dxcover website

iOnctura BV

iOnctura, located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Geneva, Switzerland, is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to delivering innovative cancer treatments to patients with unmet medical needs. Their EIC Accelerator project, CURE-PDAC, will accelerate clinical development of IOA-289 – the world’s first autotaxin inhibitor for treatment of pancreatic cancer – through Phase I/II clinical trials. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat, as it is a “cold” tumor characterised by a low degree of immune cell infiltration alongside dense scar tissue formation (fibrosis). The current lack of an effective therapy means pancreatic cancer remains a deadly cancer with a 5-year survival rate of 8%.

iOnctura’s IOA-289 treatment limits production of LPA, a key molecule in driving multiple tumorigenic processes, including fibrosis. Based on iOnctura’s data and emerging literature, IOA-289 represents a paradigm shift in the treatment landscape for cancers that are resistant to chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy, such as pancreatic cancer.

Visit the iOnctura website

EIC Accelerator success stories

In the first round of the 2022 EIC Pathfinder program, an Achilles Therapeutics-led consortium was awarded €4 million from the “Emerging technologies in cell & gene therapy” Challenge, to develop a proof-of-concept, first-in-class, smart bioprocessing manufacturing platform.

Read the full interview with Achilles

NG Sensors are on a mission to make food safer, while cutting the time and costs necessary to do so. They won EIC Accelerator funding in the second round of 2021 for the SAFE-FOOD project, which aims to develop their innovative portable mass spectrometer; capable of rapid, on-site food contaminant testing.

Read the full interview with NG Sensors

About EIC Accelerator

Applying for a European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator grant is all about high-risk, high reward. Only small and medium-sized enterprises with the most radically innovative products, services and business models, stand a chance. Successful applicants receive up to €17,5M funding (max €2,5M grant, €15M equity), access to business coaching and mentoring, and acceleration services to connect them to the exclusive community of EIC Accelerator winners.

Are you considering applying? Short proposals to the programme are allowed at any time. We are experienced in developing proposals to EIC Accelerator. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support you.

Learn more about the EIC Accelerator in 2023