About Aglaia
Aglaia invests in oncology drug development companies. Aglaia has a proven ability to select and mature early-stage breakthrough inventions that have the potential to transform cancer treatment.
Decades of experience
The Aglaia team has decades of experience in cancer research and oncology drug development. Since 2004, Aglaia has built an excellent reputation in starting up biotech companies that focus on oncology drug development.
Aglaia is committed to define the strategic directions of the companies it invests in in close collaboration with innovators and entrepreneurs. Aglaia brings hands-on experience in designing research and development plans, ranging from early screening and animal feasibility studies through clinical studies.
Aglaia Oncology Funds
- Aglaia Oncology Fund I: dissolved
- Aglaia Oncology Fund II: active
- Aglaia Oncology Growth Opportunity Fund: active
- Aglaia Oncology Growth Opportunity Fund II: active
- Aglaia Oncology Fund III: planned
Through its Oncology Funds I and II, Aglaia has invested in 12 early stage companies, of which 6 were founded by Aglaia. Aglaia Growth Fund(s) further invest in selected portfolio companies. The experienced team has been involved in the development of more than 100 oncology products. The continuous strategic and operational involvement of the team with portfolio companies has contributed to a marked success rate in transitioning early-stage portfolio companies to clinical-stage companies. By doing so, Aglaia has de-risked and matured these companies up to the level at which they become attractive candidates for licensing, acquisition or IPO.
Goddess Aglaia
Aglaia was the Greek goddess of beauty and good health. Together with her two sisters (Thalia and Euphrosyne), she was one of the three graces. The three graces were regarded as the inspirers of culture, love and wisdom. Or, more in general, bringing the feeling of wellbeing to the people. In line with the three graces, it is the intention of Aglaia Oncology Funds to contribute to the good health and the wellbeing of people by developing innovative therapies for cancer with higher cure rates and less side effects.
Team
Advisory Board
|
Alan Barge. Senior Vice President at ASLAN Pharmaceuticals and Chief Medical Officer at Carrick Therapeutics. Dr. Barge was trained in medicine at Oxford and London, and specialised in haematology and oncology. As former VP Oncology and Infection at AstraZeneca, Dr. Barge has great oncology drug development experience. Before joining AstraZeneca, Dr. Barge spent 8 years at Amgen as European Medical Director. Sjoerd van der Burg. Professor in the Immunotherapy of solid tumors. He heads the laboratory of Medical Oncology and leads the group of Experimental Cancer Immunology and Therapy of Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). He is senior investigator at the Oncode Institute and member of the advisory board of the Dutch Cancer Society. Kees Melief. Prof. Melief is CSO of ISA Pharmaceuticals in Leiden, The Netherlands. Before becoming CSO of ISA, Prof. Kees Melief was Head of the Department Immunohematology and Bloodbank of the University Hospital in Leiden and Professor of Internal Medicine. Prof. Melief is a board member and advisor of multiple organizations and companies and is considered one of the world’s most renown tumor immunologists. |
Klaus Schollmeier. Advisor to the Pharma/Biotech industry and member of the board of several Biotech companies. Mr. Schollmeier was Chief Executive Officer of SuppreMol, from 2013 until 2015, when the company was sold to Baxalta. He has a broad pharma and investment background and holds a PhD in biology from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. Diane Seimetz. Over 20 years of international drug development, partnering and managerial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. She founded Biopharma Excellence, a consulting company specialized in development and approval of biopharmaceuticals and partnering strategies. She is member of the Decision Board of the Helmholtz Validation Fund and she was Chief Scientific Officer at the Fresenius Healthcare Group. Herman Spolders. (Co)-founder of companies like Oncomethylome, Pluriomics and NCardia. He has 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in Europe and the U.S. Mr. Spolders has been instrumental in starting and growing biotech companies, IPO’s, forging large pharma-biotech collaborations and in defining new product opportunities with a focus on clinical diagnostics for cancer or infectious diseases. He studied biochemistry at the University of Amsterdam and graduated at INSEAD.
|
Investments
Aglaia is currently not reviewing new investment opportunities.
Current Investments
Exited Portfolio Companies
Investment Criteria
 |
Aglaia is currently not reviewing new investment opportunities. Aglaia is looking for excellent cancer research with the potential to be translated into cancer medicines. This translates specifically in:
Inventions should have a potential to be superior to standard of care treatment at time of market introduction and should lead to clear benefits for cancer patients and society. Inventions should be preferably platform technologies but highly interesting drug candidates with first in class potential are also considered. Drug candidates must be rigorously validated in relevant and predictive preclinical cancer models. Evidence must be provided that inventions can be patented. |
Careers
|
Aglaia Oncology Funds combines its focus on oncology with disciplined financing and a hands-on involvement – up to the level of strategic and operational management – to ensure focus on value creation and capital efficiency: keys to success for early stage companies. New additions to our team should bring complimentary scientific as well as clinical, legal, financial and business development expertise to the company. If you are interested, please send us your details and a CV to info@aglaia-oncology.com.
|
.jpg "Teamwork") |
Impact
Aglaia’s team and their limited partners are committed in achieving a positive impact on patents and society in addition to achieving a compelling financial return. Aglaia’s vision is that when stellar science is translated into great medicines for cancer patients, financial awards for those involved in this process will ultimately follow. In line with this philosophy, Aglaia has developed a tool to monitor the socio-economic impact of its investments in oncology biotech companies. For this purpose, Aglaia teamed up with the social impact consultancy firm Sinzer - now an affiliate of Grant Thornton. The joint development of a fully dedicated, highly versatile and flexible web-based platform for impact measuring and reporting in the life sciences industry, called Life Sciences Impact Suite, was completed in 2015.
If you want to learn more about Aglaia’s socio-economic performance to date, please reach out to us for further details.
Aglaia and Sinzer - Grant Thornton – made this social impact platform broadly available to the life sciences community, thereby fostering socio-economics ethics and a patient-centric culture in this industry.
Aglaia Life Science Impact Suite
Aglaia Management B.V. | SFDR website disclosures
In order to comply with the sustainable finance disclosure regulation (SFDR)[1], Aglaia Management B.V. (Aglaia) makes the following disclosures.
Integration of sustainability risks
A sustainability risk means:
"an environmental, social or governance event or condition that, if it occurs, could cause an actual or potential material negative impact on the value of the investment"
Aglaia views ESG as a standard topic in the pre-investment process. Before any investment decisions are made on behalf of any alternative investment fund (AIF) that Aglaia manages, an investment decision process is followed which in regard to specific investments includes the assessment of potential sustainability risks attached to a potential investment opportunity, alongside other relevant factors such as the relevant AIF’s investment policy and objectives. . Any such risks identified are considered by Aglaia when making investment decisions.
Moreover, Aglaia in connection with certain AIF’s has created – in cooperation with Sinzer (a Grant Thornton company) - the Life Sciences Impact Suite; an indicator framework enabling measurement of the socio-economic impact of Life Sciences investments. It contains 50 impact indicators in 4 different themes: Science and Innovation, Clinical, Socio-Economical, and Financial. Since 2016, Aglaia has collected data on these indicators and tested them on relevance and feasibility. The collected data are then reviewed by the (the relevant) AIF for reporting purposes. This framework creates insight in the impact performance of projects, companies and the complete AIF that uses the Life Sciences Impact Suite.
Sustainability and remuneration
In addition, - when assessing the performance of its employees - Aglaia takes into account compliance with all policies and procedures which are in effect within Aglaia, including those relating to taking into account sustainability risks on the investment decision making process.
Employees are made aware of the applicable policies and procedures when starting their employment with Aglaia.
No consideration of sustainability adverse impacts
In accordance with article 4 sub 1 (b) of the SFDR, Aglaia states that it does not consider adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability factors as set forth in article 4 sub 1 (a) of the Disclosure Regulation and therefore does not make the disclosures as described in article 4 sub 1 (a) of the SFDR. Given the small size of the organisation of Aglaia, such disclosure as set forth in article 4 sub 1 (a) of the SFDR and the administrative burden in connection therewith would not be proportional.
[1] Regulation (EU) 2019/2088
