EQS-News: Tacalyx Secures €11 Million to Advance Lead TACA-Targeting ADC Programme Toward the Clinic

Tacalyx Secures €11 Million to Advance Lead TACA-Targeting ADC Programme Toward the Clinic  

BERLIN, Germany, April 29^th, 2026 – Tacalyx, a leader in the discovery and development of cancer therapies directed at Tumour Associated Carbohydrate Antigens (TACAs), announces the selection of its first clinical candidate, TCX-201, which is being advanced toward clinical development with the goal of filing a clinical trial application (CTA) in 2027. In support of this progress, the company has secured €11 million in a first closing of its seed extension round from its existing international investor syndicate, including Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), Kurma Partners, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Eurazeo, Creathor Ventures, and Thuja Capital. The company intends to expand the round with additional investors in a subsequent closing. The proceeds will be used to see TCX-201 through preclinical development while advancing the company’s broader pipeline.

TCX-201 is an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) against an undisclosed TACA, developed using the company’s proprietary platform for the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies and other solid tumours. TACAs represent a largely untapped class of targets found on tumour cell surface structures that may enable the development of highly selective therapies for patients with hard-to-treat tumours. In parallel, the newly secured capital will allow Tacalyx to continue to progress and expand its rich portfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class programmes designed to address multiple solid tumour indications with a high unmet medical need. The selection of the next clinical candidate is planned for the end of 2026.

“We are deeply grateful to our investors for their unwavering commitment in our mission to develop novel and effective treatments against solid tumours”, said Jean Engela, CEO of Tacalyx. “Over the past years, we have built a powerful platform capable of reliably discovering and developing high-affinity antibodies against TACAs, sugar structures specifically found on tumour cells. Heralding a new stage for the company, Tacalyx has selected a clinical candidate for its TCX-201 programme and is now progressing preclinical activities to prepare for the CTA submission. With that, we are now redoubling our laser focus on translating the cutting-edge science on which the company was founded into transformative cancer therapies. Cancer patients cannot wait.”

Klaus Schollmeier, Chairman of the Board of Tacalyx, said: “Tacalyx has delivered on its promise to unlock the therapeutic potential of TACAs, a frontier in oncology that has long been considered undruggable. With the selection of its first clinical candidate and significant advances with its earlier pipeline, the company is now rapidly transitioning from discovery research to a clinical-stage biotech. I am proud of the team’s achievements.”

TACAs are distinctive glycan structures that are uniquely expressed or overexpressed on tumour cells and often play critical roles in tumour progression, including cell adhesion, immune evasion and metastasis. Because TACAs are found across a range of diverse cancer types, they represent promising targets for the development of pan-cancer therapeutics. Importantly, TACAs remain consistently expressed even in tumours lacking actionable genomic alterations or after standard therapies fail, positioning them as a differentiated and largely untapped class of cancer-specific targets with the potential to address treatment resistance. However, these novel targets have historically been difficult to address with antibodies, leaving much of this therapeutic space largely unexplored. Tacalyx is a pioneer in the discovery and development of therapies targeting TACAs. The company has built a proprietary discovery platform capable of reliably identifying and generating high-affinity antibodies against TACAs, enabling these previously inaccessible targets to become druggable. These antibodies can be further developed into novel antibody-based therapeutics tailored to specific clinical needs, including ADCs, TCEs and multi-specifics.

About Tacalyx

Tacalyx is a privately held biotech company focused on the discovery and development of Tumour Associated Carbohydrate Antigen (TACA) antibodies for the treatment of cancer. TACAs are formed during malignant transformation in a microevolutionary process. The expression of TACAs is elevated in many cancer types making them attractive targets for cancer treatment. Tacalyx is advancing a proprietary technology platform to exploit TACAs as novel targets for antibody-based therapies, including antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and other modalities, and is building a differentiated pipeline of programmes.

Tacalyx was founded in 2019 as a spin-out of the Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPICI) in Potsdam, Germany, based on the work of Prof. Dr. Peter Seeberger and Dr. Oren Moscovitz. Tacalyx is headquartered in Berlin, Germany and is backed by top-tier European life sciences investors Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), Kurma Partners, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), coparion, Eurazeo, Creathor Ventures, and Thuja Capital.

For more information, please visit www.tacalyx.com

Contact: Tacalyx GmbH Magnusstr. 11 12489 Berlin Tel.: +49 30 407 237 10 Email: info@tacalyx.com

Media contact: MC Services AG Dr. Regina Lutz / Katja Arnold Tel.: +49 (0)89 210 228 0 Email: tacalyx@mc-services.eu