VLP Therapeutics Raises $21M Series A-1 for Cancer Treatment Vaccine, Infectious Diseases Vaccine R&D
Gaithersburg, MD — US-based biotech company VLP Therapeutics, Inc. (VLPT) announced on December 27 that it has signed an agreement for an investment of US$21 million in a Series A-1 round from six investors, consisting of two new investors: Nobelpharma Co., Ltd. and MUFG Bank, Ltd., and four existing investors: Sojitz Corporation, MIYAKO Capital Co., Ltd., Mr. Robert G. Hisaoka and SK Impact Fund, LLC.
With this funding, VLPT aims to further accelerate the research and development of a cancer treatment vaccine as well as prophylactic vaccines against malaria, dengue, etc. and move into clinical trials at the earliest date possible. This is an additional investment following US$16 million raised in a Series A round in March 2021.
“I have long committed to the research and development of vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases so the people across the globe can lead normal lives,” says Wataru Akahata, CEO and co-founder of VLPT. “We were fortunate enough to be able to raise funding in March to facilitate our cancer treatment vaccine R&D. This additional funding will now allow us to further accelerate our other R&D efforts in infectious diseases area as well. This means a lot as it helps us to push our scientific endeavors forward at much faster pace, enabling us to get one step closer in making a greater social impact.”
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About VLP Therapeutics: VLP Therapeutics, Inc. (VLPT), co-founded in 2013 by Drs. Wataru Akahata, Ryuji Ueno, and Sachiko Kuno, is a Gaithersburg, MD-based biotech company with a mission to address unmet medical needs worldwide and expand the frontiers of vaccine treatment. Led by CEO Akahata VLPT is currently engaged in research and development of a cancer treatment vaccine as well as prophylactic vaccines against malaria, dengue, etc. using VLPT’s proprietary platform technologies.
About Dr. Wataru Akahata: Upon graduation from the University of Tokyo in 1997, Akahata studied at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies. In 2002 he earned a PhD for his HIV vaccine studies under supervision of professor Hayami Masanori at the Kyoto University Institute for Virus Research. He then started his career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Vaccine Research Center in the US through 2012. During that time he invented a virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine for chikungunya virus in 2009, on which he published an original article in Nature Medicine with the VLP image featured on the cover in 2010. He eventually won a NIH Director’s Award for his discovery of the vaccine and three other alphavirus vaccines in 2012. In addition to his role as the co-founder and CEO of VLP Therapeutics, Inc. in the US and CEO and chief R&D officer of VLP Therapeutics Japan, LLC, Akahata serves as a visiting professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and specially appointed associate professor at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan.
Contact: Yutaka Iijima, Director of Global Communications and IR
