PhD research at Pharmaceutics formed the foundation of the successful Dutch start-up company Cristal Therapeutics
Pharmaceutics
Recently, Cristal Therapeutics, a privately-held Dutch Life Science company developing nanomedicines against cancer and other diseases announced that they have secured €12.8 million upon closure of the financial round. The financing comes from a consortium headed by Dutch oncology investor Aglaia BioMedical Ventures and Belgian DROIA Oncology Ventures and was complemented by BOM, LIOF and LBDF. Existing shareholders (founders, Chemelot Ventures, BioGeneration Ventures, Utrecht ľϸӰ Holding, Nedermaas Hightech Ventures) also participated in the round. The new funding will be used to continue and accelerate the clinical development of Cristal Therapeutics’ lead candidate CriPec® docetaxel, by executing a clinical phase Ib trial, building the momentum for a clinical phase II trial starting later this year. Funds also allow for intensified development of Cristal’s nanotech platform for its innovative CriPec® DUO and CriPec® oligonucleotides programs.
Cristal Therapeutics was founded in 2011 by Cristianne Rijcken, now CSO of the company, based on technology developed during her PhD at the Pharmaceutics division of the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2003-2007. In her PhD project entitled “” she developed polymeric nanocarriers for selective tissue targeting . After several optimisation steps this has resulted in the broadly applicable CriPec® platform which Cristal Therapeutics is now using to develop nanomedicinal products with an improved therapeutic performance. The development of innovative drugs including nanomedicines is a long trajectory often taking over 10-15 years. However, the milestones achieved by Cristal Therapeutics shows that profound fundamental research in pharmaceutical sciences forms on the long run the best basis for clinical translation of promising medicines with direct benefits for patients in need.