LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NantWorks, LLC, and its ecosystem of next generation healthcare entities focusing on the discovery and development of immunology-based innovative treatments for diseases at the molecular level, today announced a $50 million equity investment in Precision Biologics, Inc., a privately held, biopharmaceutical company developing tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and companion diagnostics to treat solid-tumor cancers.
“Precision Biologics has a promising novel pipeline of therapeutic antibody candidates that target advanced pancreatic and colorectal cancers in clinical trials, as well as a companion diagnostics program that determines which patients are candidates to receive treatment,” said Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., founder and chief executive officer of NantWorks. “Based on a proprietary library of cancer vaccines, antigens and antibodies, the company has developed a portfolio of truly unique antibody therapies, which activate an immune response that are tumor and disease specific. The mission at NantWorks is the pursuit of neo-epitope driven immunotherapy for cancer. This investment furthers our mission to treat the biology of cancer, independent of the anatomy, and avoid the devastating toxic effects of standard chemotherapy while activating mankind's innate immune protective system. With a highly experienced management and scientific team, the company will complement NantWorks' approach to this paradigm shift in the molecular interrogation and treatment of cancer.”
Precision Biologics is leveraging its proprietary library of cancer vaccines to accelerate innovation. By marrying this platform with breakthrough diagnostic and immunotherapy technologies available at NantWorks and NantOmics, the company is now able to develop compounds that could change the way we detect and treat cancer. For its lead therapeutic antibody candidate, the company recently completed accrual to a Phase 2a clinical trial for advanced pancreatic and colorectal cancer. In addition, a multi-center randomized Phase 2b trial for advanced pancreatic cancer is currently enrolling patients at several well-known academic medical centers in the US. The therapeutic antibody candidate for pancreatic cancer has demonstrated promising early phase 2 data and received Orphan Drug status. The company’s pipeline also includes two additional novel, proprietary antibodies, both of which bind to tumor-specific antigens found in pancreatic, colorectal and several other types of cancer.
“The antibodies we are developing are derived from proprietary cancer vaccines isolated from surgically removed human tumors,” said Philip M. Arlen, M.D., chief executive officer of Precision Biologics. “The investment from NantWorks provides the resources that will allow for the continued development of our lead novel antibodies for pancreatic and colorectal cancers, as well as the identification of additional novel antibodies for other cancers. We are extremely pleased and fortunate to collaborate and be associated with Dr. Soon-Shiong and the NantWorks family of companies. We share a vision to improve cancer care through precision medicine.”
Evolution Venture Partners acted as sole financial advisor to Precision Biologics in connection with this transaction.
About Precision Biologics
Founded in February 2012 and commencing business in late September 2012, Precision Biologics is a clinical stage biotechnology corporation focused on developing therapeutic and diagnostic products for the early detection and treatment of cancer. The company’s antibody drug candidates and diagnostics are designed to detect and target the tumor without destroying healthy cells. Precision Biologics is uniquely positioned to create innovative therapeutics through the use of proprietary cancer vaccines, several of which have demonstrated success in human trials. By marrying this platform with today’s breakthrough technologies, the company is developing antibody therapeutics that could change the way cancer is detected and treated.
About NantWorks
NantWorks, LLC, founded by renowned physician scientist and inventor of the first human nanoparticle chemotherapeutic agent Abraxane®, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, is the umbrella organization for the following entities: NantHealth, NantMobileHealth, NantOmics, NantBio, NantCell, NantPharma, NantCapital and NantCloud. Fact-based and solution-driven, each of NantWorks’ division entities operates at the nexus of innovation and infrastructure.
The core mission of NantWorks is convergence and a systems approach to human biology: to develop and deliver a diverse range of technologies that accelerates innovation, broadens the scope of scientific discovery, enhances ground-breaking research, and improves healthcare treatment for those in need. NantWorks is building an integrated fact-based, genomically- and proteomically-informed, personalized approach to the delivery of care and the development of next generation diagnostics and therapeutics for life threatening diseases such as Cancer, Infectious Diseases and Alzheimer’s. For more information please visit www.nantworks.com and follow Dr. Soon-Shiong on Twitter @solvehealthcare.
About NantOmics
NantOmics, a member of the NantWorks ecosystem of companies, delivers molecular diagnostic capabilities with the intent of providing actionable intelligence and molecularly driven decision support for cancer patients and their providers at the point of care. NantOmics is the first molecular diagnostics company to pioneer an integrated approach to unearthing the genomic and proteomic variances that initiate and drive cancer, by analyzing both normal and tumor cells from the same patient and following identified variances through from DNA to RNA to protein to drug. NantOmics has a highly scalable cloud-based infrastructure capable of storing and processing thousands of genomes a day, computing genomic variances in near real-time, and correlating proteomic pathway analysis with quantitative multi-plexed protein expression analysis from the same micro-dissected tumor sample used for genomic analysis. For more information please visit www.nantomics.com and follow Dr. Soon-Shiong on Twitter @solvehealthcare.
About NantHealth
NantHealth, a member of the NantWorks ecosystem of companies, is a transformational healthcare IT company converging science and technology through a single integrated clinical platform, to provide actionable health information at the point of care, in the time of need, anywhere, anytime. NantHealth works to transform clinical delivery with actionable clinical intelligence at the moment of decision, enabling clinical discovery through real-time machine learning systems. The company’s technology empowers physicians, patients, payers and researchers to transcend genomics into the world of proteomics and the traditional barriers of today’s healthcare system. By converging molecular science, computer science and big data technology, the Nant Service Oriented Operating System (NantOS) platform empowers physicians, patients, and payers to coordinate best care, monitor outcomes and control cost in real time. This is the first operating system of its kind in healthcare that is based on supply chain principles and grid service oriented architecture and integrates the knowledge base with the delivery system and the payment system, enabling 21st century coordinated care at a lower cost. For more information please visit www.nanthealth.com and follow Dr. Soon-Shiong on Twitter @solvehealthcare.
About NantCell
NantCell, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NantWorks, LLC, is an immuno-oncology company focused on the discovery of innovative antibody, T cell and NK cell based treatments by developing molecularly targeted therapeutics, based on the proteomic profile of the patient's tumor, independent of the cancer's anatomical type. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the creator of Abraxane® and the founder of the nab® technology platform, established NantCell to develop a pipeline of human antibodies and inhibitors of proteins which drive tumor growth and pursue Chimeric Receptor Antigen platforms in both T and NK cells. NantCell's mission is to make obsolete the standard method of clinical trial design of "trial and error" and replace it with a level of quantitative predictability based on both the genomic and proteomic profile performed a priori. The Company will tap into comprehensive “omic” analytic tools and "big data" generated from supercomputing to develop molecularly designed drugs in this era of genomics and proteomics and identify patients and their tumor signature at the most granular cellular, DNA and protein levels. Patients entering clinical trials would be identified after a comprehensive “omic” analysis from tissue to cell to DNA to RNA to protein to peptide to drug, and tested based on this molecular profile to maximize clinical outcome and minimize side effects. Through these integrated diagnostic methods, the company is pursing the vision of treating the biology of cancer rather than the anatomy, and drive the immune system inherited by all to defeat cancer. For more information please visit www.nanthealth.com and follow Dr. Soon-Shiong on Twitter @solvehealthcare.
