
The funds are designed to help the company develop new pharmaceutical products for the treatment of cancer, especially rare types affecting children. The financing for Apeiron was made possible by the “European Fund for Strategic Investments” (EFSI).
Apeiron was founded in 2003 by the geneticist Josef Penninger, the scientific director of the Institute for Molecular Biology (IMBA) in Vienna. In May 2017, the European Commission granted market approval for a therapy focusing on immunotherapy of neuroblastoma. The therapy should increase the survival and chances of recovery for the serious cancer neuroblastoma which affects children at an early age. It is a rare cancer, but is responsible for up to 10% of solid tumors in childhood, affecting about 1,200 children in the EU and USA every year.