On July 26, 2021 Kiromic Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: KRBP), a pioneer in immuno oncology cellular therapy in solid tumors, reported it has completed the acquisition of InSilico Solutions (Press release, Kiromic, JUL 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234585202]).
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InSilico Solutions is a world-class bio-informatics and artificial intelligence innovator with a long standing collaborative relationship with its clients at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the National Cancer Institute.
With this acquisition, Kiromic will bring in-house a team of experts in bioinformatics and AI in order to lengthen its lead in the race for an AI technology with the capability to select the optimal bio-markers needed for cutting edge immunotherapeutics such as CAR-T cell therapy.
Many CAR-T developers are still developing their CAR-T with biomarkers from decade old target libraries with known poor clinical outcomes.
Chief Executive Officer of Kiromic, Maurizio Chiriva-Internati, DBSc, PhDs, commented
We are pleased to have officially closed this long awaited acquisition of InSilico Solutions.
The InSilico Solutions is another testament to our commitment to developing the very best possible CAR-T. And the very best CAR-T will start with having the best possible bio-markers by employing cutting edge bio-informatics and AI technologies.
Our CAR-T will be outpatient, off-the-shelf allogeneic.
The amount of information that oncologists and scientists gather from cancer patients continues to grow exponentially.
The number of scientists and the time those scientists have to analyze those billions of data point have not grown exponentially.
It makes sense that bioinformatics and artificial intelligence are brought to bear on the tasks of going through the mountains of data to select biomarkers in a few hours which would have required decades of human labor to do.
Best bio-informatics and AI.
Better biomarkers.
Better Manufacturing.
Better CAR-Ts.
Better Clinical Outcomes.
Chief of BioInformatics and Research Computing Officer, Michael Ryan, PhD commented :
Over the past 3 years we have had an amazingly productive collaboration with Kiromic.
Together we produced a highly effective system that allows Kiromic to identify the needles in the haystack of genomic data – small sections of protein that are specific to the surface of cancer cells and that can be targeted by immunotherapy.
The entire InSilico staff is extremely energized by the acquisition by Kiromic.
We believe we can have an immediate, significant impact on accelerating delivery of effective treatment to patients.
Our next focus will be on utilizing AI methods to optimize response to allogeneic T cell therapy.
In particular, we are developing models using WGS, RNASeq, scRNASeq, cytrometry, and cytokine panels to assist in selecting donor T cells with the strongest therapeutic potential.
Similar data from clinical trials will be used refine our understanding of efficacy and toxicity to improve treatment protocol and patient selection.
We will continually evaluate, implement, and improve our industry leading systems that will accelerate therapeutic development, manufacturing, and clinical testing of Kiromic’s off-the-shelf allogeneic CAR-T for solid tumors.
Chief Medical Officer of Kiromic, Scott Dahlbeck, MD commented:
World-wide, patients with advanced cancer conditions are in great need of effective treatment solutions that can be added to the clinical armamentarium of medical providers.
However, in order to achieve significant gains in patient survival, innovative discoveries in biomarker discovery, selection, and validation are critical to facilitate the development of the next generation of immunotherapeutics that can truly make a difference.
The acquisition of InSilico Solutions is a major step forward in this process, and we are looking forward to the breakthroughs that will result from this expansion of Kiromic’s AI capabilities and subsequently its CAR-T.
Chief of Strategy and Innovation Officer, Mr. Gianluca Rotino commented:
The acquisition of InSilico will allow significant advancement in the use of computational technologies throughout the development process, from discovery to manufacturing and in clinical trials.
This places Kiromic among the pioneers in innovative cell therapy and makes the upcoming clinical trial a critical milestone not only for the company, but for all the Cell Therapy Space.
Under the agreement terms, Kiromic acquires InSIlico through a stock-swap operation, hiring the entire staff of InSIlico and their material and immaterial assets.
The deal was followed up by the Strategy and Corporate Development department of Kiromic Biopharma
BEVILACQUA LLP served as Legal Counsel.
ThinkEquity served as financial advisors. ThinkEquity, a division of Fordham Financial Management, Inc.
Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Tony Tontat commented:
InSilico Solutions was a great find for the company 3 years ago when the collaboration started.
It’s an even better find today with the closing of this acquisition.
InSilico in-house will mean that our bio-informatics department will have the continuous attention of developers as new developments evolve.
The InSilico acquisition will not impact the company’s cash runway post the recent follow-on financing which closed on July 2021.