Merus B.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative bispecific antibody therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with investors for the sale of up to € 72.8 million ($80.5 million) of Series C preferred shares and consummated the first tranche under the agreement. New investors include Sofinnova Ventures and Novo A/S as the co-leads, along with RA Capital Healthcare Fund, Rock Springs Capital, Tekla Capital Management and an unnamed U.S.-based life sciences-focused investor.  The company's existing investors, including Novartis Venture Fund, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc., Pfizer Venture Investments, Bay City Capital, LSP Life Sciences Partners and Aglaia Oncology Fund, also participated in the financing.  

"The proceeds from this financing provide us with funding to advance our key clinical and preclinical programs and to broaden our pipeline of innovative therapeutics that recruit cells of the immune system to kill cancer cells,"

said Ton Logtenberg, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Merus. 

SkinVision, Europe’s leading skin cancer detection application, has closed an investment round with LEO Pharma, a global healthcare company dedicated to helping people achieve healthy skin. This agreement acknowledges the growing potential of a wide range of digital health technologies (digital health) to deliver innovative, consumer centric solutions and is one of the key reasons for LEO Pharma’s decision to invest. As part of the agreement LEO Pharma will collaboratively work with SkinVision’s leadership team on global solutions that can expand the reach of SkinVisions technology solutions.

LEO Pharma is already one of the world’s leading providers of skincare solutions and this business collaboration with SkinVision is a reflection of its ambition to provide easy access to better care solutions for people with skin conditions.  SkinVision’s application provides consumers with a low-­‐cost and easy-­‐to-­‐use tool for the early detection and evaluation of skin lesions.  The identification and diagnosis of skin conditions is a significant burden on healthcare systems around the world, particularly among General Practitioners (GP), so SkinVision provides a hugely complementary service to ease resource pressures and allow consumers to be better informed.

“The Internet is dramatically changing how consumers manage their health and that creates new opportunities for us to deliver innovative, value-­‐added services,” said Kim Kjoeller, Senior Vice President of Global Development at LEO Pharma A/S.  “We are very pleased to collaborate with SkinVision, because we will gain unique learnings about the convergence of digital technologies with medical applications.  The coming years will see an ever changing and increasingly digital health care environment and LEO Pharma wants to be at the forefront of that trend.  This is a huge opportunity for the European technology and pharmaceutical industries to become world leaders.”

There is a significant opportunity for SkinVision to address an unmet demand, because one of the major challenges with skin cancer is educating consumers to detect dangerous moles. 

It is estimated that dermatologists are only treating 5% of people with the risk profile for skin cancers and as one of the five cancers seeing rapid growth SkinVision’s application can make healthcare information more accessible to consumers.

Today the application focuses on lesions, taking pictures of moles using a standard smartphone camera and assessing images against its proprietary algorithm to ensure over 80% accuracy in the identification process. A key element of LEO Pharma’s investment will be enabling SkinVision to develop uses of the technology in other skin disease areas, because its database of over 1M+ images has already begun to store examples of a wide range of skin conditions.

“We are delighted to reach this agreement with LEO Pharma, because it will enable us to expand into new areas and it validates our approach,” said Dick Uyttewaal, CEO of SkinVision B.V. “LEO Pharma has a great reputation and range of products in the treatment of skin conditions, so there is clear synergy between the two companies. We want to be the leading provider of digital solutions for skin conditions and together with LEO Pharma we believe we can provide consumers with even more personalized, informative healthcare services.”

The application works by consumers taking pictures of moles, which are then analysed using an algorithm to identify potential abnormal growth. The app evaluates the risk level with an online assessment based on a traffic light of red, orange or green. Characteristics of unnatural growth could indicate a developing melanoma (code red), or if further research is needed (code orange). In both cases, the patient is referred to a dermatologist. Users can archive their skin lesions to track for changes over time or can share the images with their doctor through the app when they feel uncomfortable. The application is the only skin cancer detection app that has received European CE certification, following its scientific testing by the university clinic of Ludwig Maximillian University (LMU) in Munich in 2013. This clinic is recognised as one of Europe’s premier academic and research institutions specialising in skin cancer.

For more information visit SkinVision.