Tissium raises €39M to advance tech with drug delivery uses

Tissium has raised €38.8 million ($42.9 million) to fund work on synthetic programmable polymers with applications in drug delivery and other areas. The money will fund work to develop polymers in multiple indications and an associated U.S. expansion.

Paris-based Tissium is exploring the potential of polymers designed to fit around and integrate with human tissue. Tissium has used the technology to develop a vascular sealant but sees applications far beyond that initial use case, leading it to raise a series B round to fund work in other areas such as nerve repair, cardiovascular disease and gastroenterology.
New investors BNP Paribas Développement, the European Investment Fund, M&L Investments and ValQuest Partners supported the series B. Tissium also returned to existing investors Bpifrance, CM-CIC Innovation, CapDecisif Management, Omnes Capital and Sofinnova Partners for more cash.

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Tissium plans to use the money to run clinical development programs targeting multiple geographies. To support the globalization of its outlook, Tissium has set up an affiliate office in Boston.
The opening of the Boston office brings Tissium’s technology back to its birthplace. The technology emerged out of laboratories in Massachusetts run by Robert Langer and Jeff Karp, but the company is based in Paris. Following the series B, Tissium will remain headquartered in Paris but rely on the U.S. office for support with its global development and regulatory strategy.
Tissium is also setting up a manufacturing facility in Lille, France. The company thinks the completion of the facility will aid its efforts to streamline product development.
In conjunction with the series B, Tissium revealed Jay Watkins has replaced Bernard Gilly as chairman. Watkins said in a statement that he has been “impressed with the breadth of applications for its biomorphic programmable polymers across a wide range of therapeutic fields.”