Prokarium Announces $30 Million Financing to Deliver Lead Program into Clinic and Build Novel Therapeutic Platform
9.2.2023 15:00:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
Prokarium, a biopharmaceutical company leading the oncology field of microbial immunotherapy, has raised $30 million in new funding. This follows Prokarium’s announcement of partnering with Ginkgo Bioworks to leverage its world-class Foundry and extensive Codebase to develop a bactofection platform technology.
“We are excited to advance our vision to create living cures,” said Kristen Albright, PharmD, Chief Executive Officer of Prokarium. “Proceeds of this financing will fund our lead oncology program entering clinical development this year and enable platform expansion for the delivery of novel therapeutic payloads, including RNA, via our proprietary bacteria. With Ginkgo’s partnership and their expertise in strain engineering and optimization we look forward to working towards unlocking a new generation of immuno-oncology therapeutics.”
Prokarium’s lead program has the potential to transform the treatment paradigm in bladder cancer, one of the costliest cancers to treat, in its efforts to become the new standard-of-care in a market that has seen little innovation in over 30 years and to offer advanced therapies an alternative to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Prokarium’s pipeline leverages evolutionary advantages of a proprietary strain of Salmonella and combines them with bespoke synthetic circuits to deliver diverse therapeutic cargo for difficult-to-treat cancers.
“We believe Prokarium is a truly differentiated company,” added Thomas Eldered, Executive Chairman, Flerie Invest. “The new funds and Prokarium’s partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks will accelerate the cutting-edge innovation essential to lead the advancements in the field of synthetic biology and immunotherapy for years to come.”
“Our partnership with Prokarium will utilize Ginkgo’s leading platform capabilities and services to pioneer technological developments that we believe will revolutionize the immuno-oncology field,” added Ena Cratsenburg, Chief Business Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks. “Ginkgo is excited to partner with Prokarium to work to build a versatile Salmonella-based bactofection platform capable of delivering targeted, localized RNA therapeutics.”
In addition to the financing, Prokarium has announced the addition of two scientific advisors, Professor Adrian Hayday, PhD and Sam Chang, MD, MBA. “We are thrilled to welcome Adrian and Sam as advisors as we transition into a clinical-stage company,” concluded Albright. “Adrian brings the deep immunology and immunotherapy expertise, and Sam possesses invaluable clinical experience being involved in numerous bladder cancer clinical trials.” Professor Hayday is the founding Chair of Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology at King’s College London and is currently Principal Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute. Sam currently serves as the Chief Surgical Officer at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center.
About Prokarium
Prokarium is a biopharmaceutical company leading the oncology field of microbial immunotherapy with the vision to create living cures. The Company’s pipeline is designed to unlock a new generation of immuno-oncology therapeutics by re-engineering evolution into a synthetic biology platform. Prokarium’s lead program is focused on transforming the treatment paradigm in bladder cancer by orchestrating immune-driven, long-lasting antitumor effects. Prokarium is based in London, UK. For further information, visit www.prokarium.com.
About Flerie Invest
Flerie Invest is an active long-term global biotech and pharma investor based in Stockholm and London managing a portfolio of over 30 companies in Europe, Israel and the US. The focus is on enabling pioneering organisations operating in the drug development and services space to succeed by providing them with resources and expertise. The portfolio includes a wide range of areas including immuno- oncology, metabolic diseases and biologics development and manufacturing organisations which have the potential to make a significant impact in health and wellbeing. Flerie Invest was founded in 2011 by Thomas Eldered, who also co-founded and built Recipharm to be one of the world’s top five pharmaceutical contract manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.flerie.com.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo’s biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and concentricbyginkgo.com, read our blog, or follow us on social media channels such as Twitter (@Ginkgo and @ConcentricByGBW), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks and @ConcentricByGinkgo), or LinkedIn.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230209005006/en/
Contact information
PROKARIUM CONTACT:
Lisa Stone
lisa.stone@prokarium.com
GINKGO BIOWORKS CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Modon Partners With Montage Hotels & Resorts to Bring Ultra-Luxury Hospitality Brand to Egypt’s Ras El Hekma17.5.2026 14:53:00 EEST | Press release
Abu Dhabi-based Modon Holding and Montage Hotels & Resorts have announced Montage Ras El Hekma, which will introduce the first branded residences for purchase at Ras El Hekma on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. This is the first Montage resort in Egypt – supporting the emerging city’s growth as a global hub for leisure, business and tourism. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260517167234/en/ Modon partners with Montage Hotels & Resorts to bring ultra-luxury hospitality brand to Egypt’s Ras El Hekma (Photo: AETOSWire) Montage Ras El Hekma will feature 200 guestrooms and suites, in addition to 96 Montage Residences, and will offer a curated mix of wellness and leisure amenities, including beachfront swimmable lagoons, a Spa Montage with 13 treatment rooms, and six dining venues, alongside retail and family-oriented experiences. Designed as the experiential core of the wider community, the resort will also feature even
Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione G. Pascale Selects MEVION S250-FIT ™ for Southern Italy’s First Proton Therapy Center17.5.2026 09:00:00 EEST | Press release
Mevion Medical Systems, the global leader in compact proton therapy, today announced that it has been selected to deliver the MEVION S250-FIT Proton Therapy System™ to Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione G. Pascale in Naples. The award, made following a competitive European tender, will establish the first proton therapy center in Southern Italy, significantly expanding access to advanced radiation therapy for patients across the region and reducing the need for patients to travel long distances to northern Italy for care. Until now, proton therapy in Italy has only been available at centers located in Northern Italy, requiring patients from Southern Italy to travel significant distances for care. The Pascale project supports a broader strategy to establish Naples as a leading oncology hub and to improve healthcare equity across Italy. “The selection of the MEVION S250-FIT reflects our commitment to bringing advanced, accessible cancer care to patients in Southern Italy,” said D
TetraMem Announces 22nm Multi-Level RRAM Analog In-Memory Computing SoC Milestone16.5.2026 11:43:00 EEST | Press release
TetraMem Inc., a Silicon Valley–based semiconductor company developing analog in-memory computing (IMC) solutions, today announced the successful tape-out, manufacturing, and initial silicon validation of its MLX200 platform, a 22nm multi-level RRAM-based analog IMC system-on-chip (SoC). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260516556464/en/ Photograph of the MLX200 chip with a five-cent coin for size reference The achievement marks a significant step toward the commercialization of analog computing architectures based on emerging non-volatile memory technologies, addressing the growing challenges of data movement, power consumption, and thermal constraints in modern AI systems. As AI workloads continue to scale, system performance is increasingly constrained by the cost of moving data between memory and compute units. Analog in-memory computing offers a fundamentally different approach by performing computation dir
NTT DATA Announces Intent to Acquire WinWire to Scale Enterprise AI Adoption and Accelerate Industry Transformation with Microsoft15.5.2026 19:36:00 EEST | Press release
NTT DATA, a global leader in AI, digital business and IT services, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire WinWire,an award-winning Microsoft partner specializing in Agentic AI, AI on Azure, data engineering and cloud-native development as foundational capabilities for enterprise AI. The acquisition strengthens NTT DATA’s position as a trusted partner to help organizations move beyond experimentation to operationalize AI at scale. The acquisition further advances NTT DATA’s enterprise AI strategy as demand accelerates for AI-driven, cloud-native transformation. By expanding capabilities across data platforms, agentic AI and modern applications, NTT DATA is sharpening its ability to deliver production-ready AI solutions aligned to industry needs, reinforcing its leadership as Microsoft’s Global System Integrator (GSI) Growth Champion Partner of the Year. Upon closing, WinWire will add more than 1,000 skilled Azure engineers and Microsoft specialists to NTT DATA,
STARTEEPO Invest Announces 5% Stake in Xerox Holdings Corporation15.5.2026 19:15:00 EEST | Press release
STARTEEPO Invest (“STARTEEPO”), an alternative investment fund focused on public equity opportunities, today announced that it has acquired a significant ownership position in Xerox Holdings Corporation (“Xerox” or the “Company”). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260515594020/en/ As of the date of this release, STARTEEPO and its affiliates beneficially owns 6.6 million shares of Xerox (excluding options), representing approximately 5.05% of the Company’s outstanding common stock. STARTEEPO has filed a Schedule 13D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) providing additional details regarding its investment. Investment Perspective STARTEEPO believes that Xerox represents an interesting investment opportunity supported by a combination of balance sheet initiatives, ongoing operational improvements, and its position within a changing and consolidating industry. In STARTEEPO’s view, the Company
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom