Funds to support the expansion of Gecko's biopolymers platform through clinical development and approval for multiple applications in tissue reconstruction. Financing includes Bpifrance, and historical investors.
Gecko Biomedical ("Gecko"), a medical device company developing innovative polymers to support tissue healing, has closed a €22.5 million financing round. This series A2 round was led by Sofinnova Partners, which becomes the largest investor in Gecko, with support from Bpifrance and existing series A investors Omnes Capital, Crédit Mutuel Innovation (formerly CM-CIC Innovation) and CapDecisif Management, who invested in the company in December 2013. In conjunction with the financing, Antoine Papiernik at Sofinnova Partners and Chahra Louafi at Bpifrance have joined Gecko's Board of Directors.
Gecko was co-founded by Christophe Bancel and Bernard Gilly (both from the iBionext Network), Prof Jeff Karp (Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital - Boston, MA, USA) and Prof Bob Langer (Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA, USA) in late 2013 to advance a state-of-the-art polymer platform. One of its lead inventors, Dr Maria Pereira, was named a Forbes 2015 "30 under 30." Pereira is Gecko's Head of Research.
The funds raised will be used to further advance the development of Gecko's first platform GB-02 for cardiovascular reconstruction and beyond. In addition, the funds will be used to leverage its fully industrialized platform in novel areas including guided tissue repair and localized drug delivery.
Gecko's platform has demonstrated its ability to be fully industrialized, with a unique level of biocompatibility and a great potential in terms of versatility.
This platform is based on proprietary polymers with unique chemical and physical properties, including high viscosity, hydrophobicity and fast "on demand" curing for precise local delivery and in situ adhesion. Upon curing, an elastic biodegradable film is formed. The structure of the polymer is tunable, allowing customization for various applications and tissues.
Christophe Bancel, Gecko's CEO, commented: "Our investors' support will enable us to complete our international clinical plans in cardiovascular surgery, which, if positive, will allow us to seek our first regulatory approval within one year. In addition, the funds will be used to expand our GB-02 platform to additional applications in tissue reconstruction. We will also drive the development of our next generation polymer GB-04, for sutureless closure."
Antoine Papiernik, Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, added: "We are thrilled to be involved with Gecko Biomedical, a company which combines all the key features we are looking for when investing in a company: a very strong management team and a world-class platform technology with a multitude of possible paradigm-shifting applications."
