Forbes Australia recognizes Prota Therapeutics for making waves in Australia’s startup scene at the moment
June 24, 2024
June 18, 2024 – (Forbes Australia) – Founder and CEO Mimi Tang has spent almost three decades working in allergy immunology. For much of that time, she was unsatisfied with the common approach – avoid the allergen and turn to the EpiPen in an emergency. But, after an initial trial in 2015 showed hope for the possibility of ‘curing’ peanut allergies, Tang left her job as a senior physician to work as a start-up founder.
Prota Therapeutics was spun out of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in 2016 and began working towards developing an oral immunotherapy solution for children with food allergies. Tang is in the top 1% of highly cited researchers in the field of immunology and was recently the recipient of the Distinguished Leadership Award at BioMelbourne Network Women in Leadership Awards for her work on peanut allergies.
It was announced earlier this year that in a series A1 round, Prota Therapeutics had successfully raised $31.6 million from investors led by SPRIM Global Investments (SGI). The capital raised in this round will go towards commercialising the product – although that could take years. Managing Partner and Co-founder at SGI, Michael Shleifer, says, “We chose Prota Therapeutics first and foremost because of Dr. Tang’s very focused, clinical-driven approach that yielded a remarkable efficacy profile for Prota’s treatment.”
About SPRIM Global Investments (SGI)
SPRIM Global Investments (SGI) is a leading health sciences venture capital firm with deep industry expertise and decades of operating experience across 17 countries. SGI invests in biotechnology, digital health and R&D service companies to commercialize the newest technologies and accelerate innovations that are the future of health around the world. For more information, visit: www.sprim.net.
About Prota Therapeutics
Prota Therapeutics is an Australian proprietary limited, privately-held biotech company established in 2016 to develop and commercialize novel oral immunotherapy treatments for food allergy. Prota holds intellectual property covering the proprietary food immunotherapy technology developed at the MCRI. The company is, in part, a OneVentures’ Healthcare Fund III investment. This fund was established with investment in part from the Australian Commonwealth Government through the BioMedical Translation Fund initiative. Prota Therapeutics has its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. For more information please visit: https://protatherapeutics.com/.
Media Contact:
Edna Kaplan
KOGS Communication
kaplan@kogspr.com
+1 617-974-8659
—[1] Loke, PaxtonO’Sullivan, Molly et al. Probiotic peanut oral immunotherapy versus oral immunotherapy and placebo in children with peanut allergy in Australia (PPOIT-003): a multicentre, randomised, phase 2b trial. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, Volume 6, Issue 3, 171 – 184, 2022
Source: Forbes Australia
Sectors: BioTech
