COLOGNE, GERMANY, CEVEC Pharmaceuticals, licensing its human CAP Technology based expression system for proteins and vaccines, today announced the closing of a €6M financing round. NRW.BANK and Creathor Venture Fonds led this round which included the participation from current investors, a group of private and institutional investors and ERP Startfonds of KfW bank.

The funding enables CEVEC to strengthen the growth of its protein and vaccine commercialization business of the proprietary CAP Technology platform. CEVEC also intends to develop certain vaccines together with partners based on a further financing round, to be closed by the end of 2011.

The CAP Technology platform comprises human CAP and CAP-T expression systems and is used for the manufacture of complex biologics and therapeutic antibodies with human-like glycosylation and sialylation patterns. New data proved that the human CAP technology is also an excellent platform for various vaccine production needs. Outstanding data obtained with the only independent available human cell system for various influenza strains and various other vaccine types show the broad range where the CAP system can be used.

Dr. Rainer Lichtenberger, CEO of CEVEC comments: "We are delighted for having the financial resources to making the human CAP technology the leading system in the global expression market. With Creathor Venture and NRW.BANK we have two first-class investors on board who value the unique strengths of our CAP Technology."

Wolfgang Kintzel, CCO of CEVEC states: "After the successful launch of CAP und CAP-T in Europe, Asia/Pacific and the U.S. for use in the field of protein and antibody expression, the new excellent scientific data using the system for vaccine production open a truly outstanding new business opportunity for CEVEC. The human CAP technology will soon become the leading cell line for all vaccine and protein production needs."

Karlheinz Schmelig, Chairman of CEVEC´s supervisory board and Managing Director at Creathor Venture and Dr. Aristotelis Nastos, NRW.BANK, add: "We see tremendous commercial opportunities for customers and CEVEC in the global pharmaceutical manufacturing markets with CEVEC's high performance human expression system CAP. We also highly value the outstanding management and scientific team of CEVEC and their proven execution skills."

About CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH
CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH, operational since 2004 and located in Cologne, Germany, is a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in developing and producing therapeutic proteins, vaccines and monoclonal antibodies with human glycosylation patterns. CEVEC's novel proprietary and patent-protected human CAP and CAP-T expression systems are ideal for manufacturing complex biopharmaceutical molecules and various vaccines. CEVEC is licensing out its human cell-based expression platform as well as its own Biobetter Candidates through partnerships with renowned pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

About Creathor Venture
CREATHOR VENTURE invests in technology-oriented companies and entrepreneurs from the fields of life science, IT, telecommunication, new media, new materials, electronics, nanotechnology and clean tech.

CREATHOR VENTURE's management team includes Dr. Gert Köhler, the founder of the former Technologieholding VC GmbH, as well as Ingo Franz and Karlheinz Schmelig. The team has been working in early-stage venture capital for 20 years. During that time more than 200 technology companies have been financed and over 20 IPOs as well as numerous trade sales have been conducted.

Extraordinarily successful companies that the partners have managed from the first round of financing to IPO include Micronas (SMI), SEZ (SMI), Intershop (Prime Segment), Infovista (NASDAQ, Nouveau Marché) and ITN Nanovation (Prime Segment).

About NRW.BANK
NRW.BANK is the state development bank of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Its mission is to support its owners - the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the Regional Associations of Westphalia-Lippe and the Rhineland - in the completion of important structural policy tasks. Headquartered in Düsseldorf and in Münster, the Bank supports the regional economy, the municipalities and the people of NRW with the full range of credit products from the development programs of the state, the federal government and the EU to equity and debt financing alternatives.

For business start-ups and SMEs in North Rhine-Westphalia, NRW.BANK uses customized public promotion and equity finance products. The Bank aims to constantly improve the financing situation of this target group. For this purpose NRW.BANK has aligned its equity capital products with companies' lifecycles and their resulting requirements.