Vivere Oncotherapies Announces >$10M Funding to Develop Targeted Therapies for Solid Tumors

Funding Led by YK Bioventures With Additional Funding From Pillar, Berkeley Frontier Fund, Freeflow Ventures and The National Cancer Institute

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vivere Oncotherapies, a UC Berkeley spin-out developing cancer therapies that activate the immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells in immunologically cold tumors, today announced over $10M in funding from YK Bioventures, Pillar, Berkeley Frontier Fund, Freeflow Ventures and The National Cancer Institute. Leveraging technology that enables engineering of targeted immunotherapies, Vivere will develop transformative treatments for difficult-to-treat cancers that otherwise evade immune system detection and for which there are few effective treatments.

Solid tumors such as colorectal and ovarian are among the most difficult cancers to treat. These tumors are characterized by their lack of immune-cell infiltration, making them resistant to conventional immunotherapies like checkpoint inhibitors. Despite decades of research, there has been limited success in cracking the code on cold tumors, leaving patients with few options and poor prognosis.

“Vivere’s goal is to empower the patients’ immune systems to fight off cancer. Our team is united by a belief that cold tumors are not inherently untreatable, just misunderstood,” said Melissa Kotterman, Ph.D., CEO of Vivere Oncotherapies. “We’ve spent years building a platform capable of breaking through the immunological invisibility of these tumors. With the support of our investors, we’re now poised to bring a new generation of targeted immunotherapies to patients who currently have no effective options.”

“Building Vivere’s platform has been about rethinking what’s possible in cancer therapy. From its early days, the vision was to build a platform that could finally unmask cold tumors to the immune system through improved delivery of targeted and safe therapies,” said David Schaffer, Ph.D., Co-founder of Vivere Oncotherapies and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley and Director of QB3 and Bakar Labs. “Our team’s rare combination of engineering, immunology, and translational expertise paired with our experience in building clinical-stage biotech companies gives us the tools to tackle problems others have deemed intractable.”

About Vivere

Vivere develops cancer therapies that activate the immune system to detect and selectively destroy cancer cells in tumors that otherwise remain hidden to the body’s natural defenses. Our name Vivere (pronounced VEE-veh-ray) means “to live” and reflects our mission to develop life-saving treatments for patients by applying innovative engineering approaches to solve complex human biology challenges. Leveraging technology developed at UC Berkeley, Vivere’s team of scientists uses a proprietary bioengineering platform to design safe, targeted and more effective cancer-fighting therapies that reach tumors more efficiently and deliver treatment where it’s needed most. By breaking down barriers between modern medicine and human biology, our goal is to provide breakthrough treatments to some of the most challenging cancers and diseases for which there are few effective solutions.