Camel-IDS Secures €37 Million Series A Financing to Advance Radiopharmaceutical Therapy for HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Brain Metastases

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that on November 16 (local time), Camel-IDS announced the completion of a €37 million Series A financing round. The round was led by Gimv and V-Bio Ventures, with participation from other investors including HealthCap, Novo Holdings, BioMedPartners, and Pontifax. The proceeds will be used to fund a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of CAM-H2, a radiopharmaceutical compound targeting brain metastases in HER2-positive breast cancer. The company will also advance and expand its preclinical pipeline.

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Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer often respond well to targeted therapies—including Genentech’s Herceptin (trastuzumab), Perjeta (pertuzumab), and Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine). However, the clinical picture deteriorates when the cancer metastasizes to the brain. Among all malignancies, breast cancer is the second most common cause of brain metastases, surpassed only by lung cancer. Approximately 6–16% of patients with breast cancer develop brain metastases during their disease course, while autopsy studies report a higher prevalence of 18–30%. Brain metastases occur more frequently in two subtypes: triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-positive breast cancer. In patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, the incidence of brain metastases ranges from 30% to 55%. With the continuous introduction of HER2-targeted agents such as trastuzumab, the prognosis for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer has improved significantly. This benefit is primarily attributable to the effective control of extracranial disease progression by these targeted therapies. However, due to the presence of the blood-brain barrier, large-molecule drugs like trastuzumab have limited ability to penetrate it, rendering the brain a “natural sanctuary” for metastatic tumors.

Current treatment modalities include surgical resection for individual brain tumors and radiotherapy for multiple brain metastases. A retrospective study has shown that up to 50% of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer die from intracranial disease progression. Brain metastases have become one of the major obstacles limiting survival in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. According to the latest consensus on brain metastases in breast cancer, whole-brain radiotherapy should be deferred in asymptomatic patients, with local surgical intervention or stereotactic radiosurgery preferred as part of systemic therapy-based management.

The Université libre de Bruxelles is working to fill this gap with a radiopharmaceutical that targets brain tumors without harming healthy tissue. Its flagship project, CAM-H2, is based on technology that links radionuclides (radioactive atoms or nuclei) to single-domain antibodies derived from camels. The company states that this technology also enables a theranostic approach, whereby patients are first assessed using low-dose imaging and then receive high-dose radiation therapy to treat their cancer.

Karl Naegler of Gimv, a participant in the financing round, stated, “From the outset of our discussions, the Camel-IDS team’s strengths in radioimmunotherapy were evident, with Tony Lahoutte providing exceptional scientific insights. He and Ruth Devenyns serve as Co-CEOs; both are seasoned industry veterans and successful entrepreneurs in the European biotechnology sector, and the company is well-positioned to enter its next phase of growth.”

Camel-IDS was founded in 2014 and is dedicated to developing radioimmunotherapy drugs for cancer patients.