Swiss Rockets is in talks to raise CHF 200m (USD 231m) to finance its subsidiaries’ drug-development programmes, founder and CEO Vladimir Cmiljanovic said.

Basel, Switzerland-headquartered Swiss Rockets is a holding company with a portfolio of biotech businesses, whose drug candidates are at stages ranging from pre-clinical to Phase II clinical trials in oncology and infectiology.

To raise the funds, the company targets private equity firms and strategic players from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, Cmiljanovic said. It is in talks with some investors and aims to raise the funds in the next two months, he said.

The financing efforts are managed in house, he said. He did not disclose Swiss Rockets’ valuation nor the stake available to investors, adding that the group does not generate revenues as is in the R&D phase, but it has a few hundred employees.

Swiss Rockets will use the new capital to finance further development of its subsidiaries RocketVax, Torqur and Torpedo Pharmaceuticals, he said.

RocketVax has developed a group of vaccines to address the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which are currently in pre-clinical testing. In March, the company announced a strategic partnership with Emergent BioSolutions. Emergent will lead the US manufacturing and commercialisation for four of Rocketvax’s pipeline candidates for infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmune disorders.

Torqur is developing a platform for the discovery and development of innovative anti-cancer therapies targeting the metabolic PI3K/mTOR intracellular signalling pathway. Torpedo Pharmaceutical uses radioligand therapy to treat cancer, initially focusing on prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumours.

Swiss Rockets owns 100% of Torqur and Torpedo, and 70% of RocketVax, whose other investors include Ursimone Wietlisbach.

Since being founded in 2018, Swiss Rockets has raised approximately CHF 250m, Cmiljanovic said. The company is owned by four family offices, and his family office is the largest shareholder, he added.

Divestment plans

Swiss Rockets is also looking to sell a drug for the treatment of actinic keratosis developed by Torqur, Cmiljanovic said. Assisted by biotech M&A advisor Centerview Partners, it is in talks with pharmaceutical companies and aims to close a deal in the next four to six months, he said.

Torqur’s lead product is bimiralisib for the treatment of actinic keratosis, a pre-cancerous dermatological condition, and it is in Phase II clinical trials, he said. The company presented interim Phase II clinical trial results in March, which showed that 60% of trial patients experienced full or partial lesion clearance. Full study results are expected in June 2025, according to the press release.

To date, more than CHF 100m has been invested to develop the actinic keratosis treatment, Cmiljanovic said. He did not disclose bimiralisib’s valuation but said that it has many applications, of which one addresses a market that can be valued at USD 10bn. Bimiralisib is also under development for the treatment of head and neck cancer.