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
Sutherland Launches FinAI Hub to Industrialize Agentic AI for Banking and Financial Services6.3.2026 15:00:00 EET | Press release
Today, Sutherland announced the launch of Sutherland FinAI Hub, an enterprise Agentic AI platform built exclusively for Banking and Financial Services. As financial institutions accelerate AI adoption, many initiatives remain confined to pilots, unable to scale across legacy systems and core operations. Sutherland FinAI Hub is designed to help close that gap. FinAI Hub is an innovation ecosystem where Sutherland works with clients to design, prototype, and scale Agentic AI workflows across core operations. At launch, the platform brings together a large and expanding workforce of domain-trained AI agents purpose-built for financial institutions, supporting functions across retail banking, payments, cards, consumer and commercial lending, servicing, back office, risk and compliance functions. These modular agents can operate independently or be orchestrated across end-to-end workflows spanning onboarding, KYC, AML, fraud, underwriting, payments, disputes, servicing, and collections. For
Hytera Announces 450Connect Whitelisting of PNC660 450MHz at MWC 20266.3.2026 14:02:00 EET | Press release
Hytera, a leading global provider of critical communications technologies and solutions, announced that its mission-critical smart device, the PNC660 450MHz, has been granted whitelist certification by 450Connect during the Mobile World Congress 2026 (MWC26), held from March 2 to 5 in Barcelona, Spain. This certification authorizes the device for full commercial deployment across European 450MHz private broadband networks, marking a significant milestone for Hytera in delivering reliable, secure, and robust communication solutions to energy providers and other critical infrastructure sectors. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260305205209/en/ Hytera launches the MCX Smart Device PNC660 450MHz 450Connect is the exclusive licensee and operator of the nationwide 450MHz radio network in Germany and across Europe. Its whitelist program enforces stringent evaluation criteria covering device compatibility, network inte
Smoke Free Sweden: Brussels Warned Against Depriving Women of Best Tool to Quit Smoking6.3.2026 11:28:00 EET | Press release
On International Women’s Day (March 8), health experts are warning EU policymakers not to jeopardise women’s health by restricting or banning nicotine pouches that have helped drive one of the world’s most dramatic declines in female smoking. The warning accompanies the release of Empowerment in a Pouch, a report showing how access to oral, tobacco-free nicotine pouches has accelerated Sweden’s progress towards smoke-free status, particularly among women. European Commission proposals under consideration in the Tobacco Products Directive could reverse this progress if applied across the EU, where more than one in five women still smokes. “Sweden’s experience shows what happens when women are given realistic alternatives to smoking,” said Professor Marewa Glover, behavioural scientist and co-author. “Remove those options and you remove momentum. The danger now is that European policy ignores success and repeats past mistakes.” The report shows that since nicotine pouches became availabl
2PointZero Group Completes Majority Acquisition in Italy-Based ISEM Packaging Group for AED 704 Million5.3.2026 23:02:00 EET | Press release
2PointZero Group PJSC (ADX: 2PointZero), a next-generation investment powerhouse focused on energy and consumer sectors, announced today that it has formally completed the transaction to acquire a majority position in ISEM, a leading European packaging group serving beauty, fashion, luxury, nutraceuticals and more, for AED 704 million through a combination of secondary and primary capital earmarked to accelerate organic and inorganic growth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260305800523/en/ 2PointZero Group completes majority acquisition in Italy-based ISEM Packaging Group for AED 704 million (Photo: AETOSWire) 2PointZero Group now holds 60.8% of ISEM, while Peninsula Capital and minority investors own the remaining 39.2%. This marks the start of a strategic partnership between 2PointZero and Peninsula. Together, the partners will reinforce ISEM’s leadership position with a focus on category and geographic expa
Xsolla Announces Reseller Program to Help Game Developers Unlock New Revenue Streams in Local Markets5.3.2026 19:00:00 EET | Press release
Xsolla, a leading global video game commerce company, today announced the Xsolla Reseller Program, a new product designed to help game developers scale and capture untapped revenue in local markets with no development needed. The program launches with a curated cohort of resellers and distributors in Southeast Asia and Latin America, with expansion into additional regions throughout 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260305047070/en/ Graphic: Xsolla As game developers pursue global growth, they face a fundamental infrastructure challenge: billions of dollars in revenue remain untapped in emerging, cash-dependent economies, such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa, where players purchase digital content through local distribution partners. In mature digital economies, developers seek to extend their reach and distribute digital inventory at scale through more partners and chan
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