SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Batu Biologics, an immuno-oncology company, has successfully completed its $1 million seed round of funding, bringing the company one step closer in its efforts to battle lung cancer, the leading cancer killer in the United States. Batu leveraged primarily private and angel funding to attain this fundraising goal.
“The completion of this seed round of financing marks a critical inflection point in the development of our company and our lead program, ValloVax,” said Samuel C. Wagner, President and CEO of Batu Biologics. “Our strategy revolves around rapid clinical development, and we hope to soon realize the therapeutic potential of combining angiogenesis inhibition with the power of immunotherapy.”
According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 158,040 Americans are expected to die from lung cancer in 2015, accounting for approximately 27 percent of all cancer deaths. Batu Biologics recently filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) application (IND # 16296) with the FDA seeking to initiate a Phase I dose-escalation study for ValloVax™ in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
ValloVax is a polyvalent cancer vaccine that stimulates an immune response against the tumor-associated blood vessels, seeking to cut off the blood supply required for sustainable tumor growth. In preclinical testing, ValloVax was shown to inhibit new blood vessel formation in melanoma, breast and lung cancer mouse models.
Batu Biologics has published preclinical data for ValloVax in The Journal of Translational Medicine, describing the feasibility and proposed methods of inducing immunity against the tumor endothelium as well as a summary of efficacy and safety studies conducted for the ValloVax™ platform. The article was co-authored by Dr. Amit Patel, Associate Professor, Department of Surgery at the University of Utah, Dr. Santosh Kesari, Director of Neuro-Oncology at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, and Dr. Wei-ping Min, Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Western Ontario.
“Batu Biologics would like to thank its investors, shareholders and collaborators who are supporting our efforts to bring our immune-therapeutic, ValloVax, into clinical trials,” said Alan Lewis, Chairman of Batu Biologics. “Harnessing and directing the immune system is changing the way we treat cancer. Our Team is focused on developing cutting-edge therapeutics that take a whole new approach to battling this terrible disease by blocking the mechanisms that feed the tumor. We aim to make a difference in the lives of patients in need of less toxic therapeutics.”
Proceeds from this funding round will be dedicated to preparing the ValloVax platform for entry into the clinical setting, thus positioning Batu Biologics for a venture-backed Series A capital raise.
About Batu Biologics
Founded in 2013, Batu Biologics is an immuno-oncology company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapies that target the Achilles Heel of cancer: the tumor blood vessels. Batu seeks to address the multidimensional nature of cancer by developing universal donor therapeutics that target multiple pathways concurrently to enhance efficacy and specificity. The company is headquartered in San Diego and maintains research facilities at JLABS@San Diego, located in San Diego’s Torrey Pines-area biotech cluster.
