MILAN, SEPTEMBER 7th 2016 ‑ Panakès Partners and Innogest led a €4.2M financing round in Seventeen, an innovative startup based in Naples which operates in the interventional oncology medtech segment.

Seventeen has developed an innovative approach to ensure loco-regional treatment of some non-resectable solid tumors or tumors with high post-surgical local recurrence incidence. This technology allows to ablate or destroy the tumor mass through the intratumoral injection of a biocompatible gel loaded with radioactive particles able to maximize the radiotherapeutic effect by reducing at the same time the side effects.

Prof. Francesco Izzo, researcher, surgeon at Istituto Pascale, Medical Director of the Complex Structure of Abdominal Oncology Surgery unit with Hepatobiliary specialisation at Cancer Institute of Naples and Principal Investigator of the new methodology, has already led experimentations aimed at obtaining the CE mark. With the new funding the company will further finalize the development and the clinical validation phase.

The entrance of the two Venture Capitalists allows Prof. Izzo to be supported by a team with extensive international experience in the field of oncology and clinical research: Massimo Romanelli (ex-Oncology Division, product manager for AngioDynamics in Italy) will be the COO of the company, while Lucio Fumi (former Director, Interventional Oncology BTG and Terumo) will be the Chairman of the Board. Furthermore, Laura Iris Ferro (founder and former CEO of Gentium) will join the company as independent director.

«The interventional oncology segment is one of the main targets of our fund; we are proud to have invested in an ambitious and promising project such as Seventeen», said Diana Saraceni, co-founder and General Partner at Panakès. «The company will shortly bring to the market a medical instrument dedicated to the treatment of some solid tumors otherwise inoperable or ones with high incidence of local recurrences. Seventeen, although only on its startup phase, has already received interest from some of the very acquisitive companies in the field. Moreover, beyond the indisputable financial interest of the transaction, there is also an ethical aspect that has further motivated us».

«We are excited to invest in Seventeen, a startup with a great potential. The company has developed a technology that could offer a solution for patients with certain types of cancers for which there are no effective therapeutic options today», said Claudio Rumazza, Partner at Innogest. «We were impressed by the preclinical results obtained so far and we believe that the pool of talents already involved in the project, along with additional resources that the company will be able to attract with our support, place Seventeen in an optimal position to disrupt cancer treatment through loco-regional radiotherapy».

«A new phase starts for Seventeen. With our main product close to CE mark certification, additional resources and expertise will be needed to bring the product to market», said Prof. Francesco Izzo. «With this operation I am very confident to have helped the company to adopt all the necessary tools to ensure success. I hope to see the product on the market soon, since the developed methodology allows us to treat a large number of patients, currently without therapeutic options».

About Panakès Partners (contact@panakes.it)
Panakès Partners invests is a Venture Capital investor that finances medical companies, early stage startup and SMEs, with extremely promising products and great ambition, in Europe and Israel, improving both patient outcomes and healthcare economics. Investments focus on the medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT fields. Panakès Partners is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

About Innogest (press@innogestcapital.com)
Innogest is a Venture Capital firm founded in 2005 with offices in Turin, Milan and San Francisco. With 180€ million of capital under management, Innogest focuses on promising seed and early stage ventures developing medical devices, diagnostics and digital health and is particularly active in oncology, cardiology and neurology.