The French biotechnology company Samabriva has successfully completed a Series A round of financing to secure an investment of nearly €4 million.
Its innovative plant-based bioproduction process has the potential to transform production of high value molecules — such as natural active molecules (secondary metabolites) and recombinant proteins — for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors.
Several specialist biotech business angels have joined this round of funding. Alongside their financial investment, they will bring a wealth of knowledge to help transform Samabriva into a leading CDMO.
The immediate focus will be on the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) using confined and controlled plant-based expression systems.
With lead investors like Noshaq and Investsud Tech now on board, this financing round will accelerate Samabriva’s growth. The company will be able to develop its first industrial production site in the Liège region of Belgium, taking advantage of the exceptional biotech ecosystem there, while maintaining the research centre in France.
This will complement the support already received from Service public de Wallonie (SPW) in Belgium and Banque publique d'investissement (BPI) in France. The funding will increase the speed with which Samabriva’s technology is deployed and ensure the transformation of the company into a fully fledged CDMO.
Marina Guillet, CEO of Samabriva, said: “We’re delighted that leading biotech investors have seen the incredible potential of Samabriva. With their support for our expansion in the rapidly growing API market, we’ll be ideally placed to meet the needs of the pharmaceutical sector.”
Eric Brandt, Investment manager at Noshaq, added: “Samabriva is at the cutting edge of plant-based biotechnology. This makes it an exciting investment opportunity. The sustainability, stability and consistency that come from growing plants in a bioreactor are increasingly hard to resist for biopharma companies. We’re delighted to help Samabriva meet that need.”
Pascal Lizin, Chairman of Samabriva, concluded: “Building our first production site in Belgium is a major step forward for Samabriva. Not only will the investment transform our API production capability but it will also accelerate the company’s international business development."
"The funding will also enable us to expand our R&D center in Amiens, France which is dedicated to the development of new production processes for high value products. This will contribute to tackling the ongoing challenges in the global pharmaceutical industry, addressing critical public health issues.”