ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., (“ITI”) a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms, announced today the close of a $61.3M financing led by HLB Co., LTD, a global pharmaceutical company focused on developing novel cancer drugs. This represents the second closing in the investment process for the HLB Consortium, ($10M was placed in February 2020), and substantially increases their holding in Immunomic Therapeutics to 47.6% of the common stock. HLB also secured an option to make further investment into the company in the months ahead.
“We are pleased to welcome HLB as a significant shareholder of Immunomic Therapeutics and look forward to working with them within the framework of the HLB Bio family of companies. They have a proven track record of success in Asia and share our commitment and passion for developing best-in-class therapies for cancer and other serious diseases,” said Dr. William Hearl, CEO of Immunomic Therapeutics. “With HLB’s support, we are well-positioned to accelerate our efforts in immuno-oncology, in particular glioblastoma multiforme, and rapidly advance other key candidates in our pipeline, including our most recent initiative into infectious diseases with development of our vaccine candidate for COVID-19.”
Proceeds from the financing will support the acceleration of ITI's Phase II clinical trial of ITI-1000 for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), advance its emerging pipeline, and expand upon the current applications of its UNITE platform. The financing will also enable Immunomic to expand its team and infrastructure to support the future growth of the company.
In addition, ITI and HLB intend to establish an Asian Brain Cancer Research Center in Seoul that will bring together the world’s leading experts and cutting-edge science to advance research in the GBM field and to deploy ITI-1000 to the Asian population. ITI-1000 is a cell therapy powered by ITI’s UNITE platform that is currently being evaluated in a Phase II clinical trial (ATTAC-II) in collaboration with researchers at the University of Florida (Dr. Duane Mitchell) and Duke University (Dr. John Sampson). ITI-1001 is an alternative, cell-free approach to treating GBM. The company held a successful pre-IND meeting earlier this year for ITI-1001 and expects to be able to file an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of 2020.
Concurrent with the financing, five (5) members from HLB Co., LTD will be joining the Immunomic Therapeutics Board of Directors.
About UNITE
ITI’s investigational UNITE platform, or UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression, works by fusing pathogenic antigens with the Lysosomal Associated Membrane Protein, an endogenous protein in humans, for immune processing. In this way, ITI’s vaccines (DNA or RNA) have the potential to utilize the body’s natural biochemistry to develop a broad immune response including antibody production, cytokine release and critical immunological memory. This approach could put UNITE technology at the crossroads of immunotherapies in a number of illnesses, including cancer, allergy and infectious diseases. UNITE is currently being employed in Phase II clinical trials as a cancer immunotherapy. ITI is also collaborating with academic centers and biotechnology companies to study the use of UNITE in cancer types of high mortality, including cases where there are limited treatment options like glioblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia. ITI believes that these early clinical studies may provide a proof of concept for UNITE therapy in cancer, and if successful, set the stage for future studies, including combinations in these tumor types and others. Preclinical data is currently being developed to explore whether LAMP nucleic acid constructs may amplify and activate the immune response in highly immunogenic tumor types and be used to create immune responses to tumor types that otherwise do not provoke an immune response.
About Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc.
Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is a privately-held, clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of vaccines through its proprietary technology platform, UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression (UNITE), which is designed to utilize the body’s natural biochemistry to develop vaccines that generate broad immune responses. UNITE has a robust history of applications in various therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, oncology, allergy and autoimmune diseases. ITI is primarily focused on applying the UNITE platform to oncology, where it could potentially have broad applications, including viral antigens, cancer antigens, neoantigens and antigen-derived antibodies as biologics. The Company has built a large pipeline from UNITE with six oncology programs and two allergy programs. ITI has entered into a significant allergy partnership with Astellas Pharma and has formed several academic collaborations with leading Immuno-oncology researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, and Duke University. ITI maintains its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. For more information, please visit www.immunomix.com.