On May 4, 2021 Mogrify Limited (Mogrify), a biopharmaceutical company aiming to transform the development of ex vivo cell therapies and pioneer a new class of in vivo reprogramming therapies, reported the second closing of its Series A financing of $17 million USD, bringing the total raised to $33 million USD in this round (Press release, Mogrify, MAY 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234579125]). The funding will support the advancement of Mogrify’s immuno-oncology and ophthalmology programs, as well as continued platform development and the exploration of cell reprogramming for novel therapeutic application.

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This second close of the Company’s Series A was led by Parkwalk Advisors and incorporates additional funding from strategic Corporate Pharma investor Astellas Venture Management as well as 24Haymarket, co-Founder of Abcam PLC, Dr Jonathan Milner, and Mogrify CEO, Dr Darrin M Disley OBE.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Mogrify’s immuno-oncology and ophthalmology programs, inclusive of iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapies targeting hematological and solid malignancies, as well as in vivo reprogramming therapies aiming to address retinal degeneration, a leading cause of blindness, through to IND-enabling studies.

Mogrify’s proprietary suite of platform technologies enable systematic identification of the key transcriptomic and epigenetic cell switches that drive the speed, efficiency and maintenance of cellular reprogramming. In addition to the Company’s core programs, the broad potential of both the MOGRIFY and epiMOGRIFY technologies allow continued exploration and generation of novel cell-based and in vivo reprogramming therapies for disease areas with high unmet clinical need.

Mogrify also announced the appointments of Dr Lorenz Mayr, former CTO of GE Healthcare Life Sciences and Vice President Discovery Sciences at AstraZeneca, as Non-Executive Director, after serving as an Observer since July 2020, and Dr Hiromichi Kimura, Astellas Venture Management as an Observer.

Dr. Darrin M. Disley, OBE, CEO, Mogrify, said: "We are delighted to see the continued support of our existing investors, as well as welcome new investors Astellas Venture Management and Dr Jonathan Milner, in support of the progression of our initial programs through to IND-enabling studies.

Their commitment is a testament to our delivery of world-class science, expertise in cellular reprogramming and the unique potential of the MOGRIFY and epiMOGRIFY platforms to develop novel in vivo reprogramming therapies while also addressing issues of scalability and manufacturing in ex vivo cell therapies. This latest funding will provide runway toward a significant Series B round as we progress our lead assets toward the clinic."

Alastair Kilgour, Chief Investment Officer, Parkwalk Advisors, said: "Mogrify is led by a team with proven world-class commercial and scientific expertise who have made significant progress in applying the technology to drive the speed, efficiency and maintenance of cellular reprogramming. We are excited to continue supporting their extraordinary team as the Company progresses with increasing success in cell and gene therapy development."

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On May 04, 2021 UPPTHERA, a pharmaceutical venture company aiming for new drugs based on targeted protein degradation (TPD) technology and ComInnex, a specialist chemistry group with expertise in the design and synthesis of small molecules for drug discovering reported the companies will accelerate the development of new proteolysis targeting chimeras (commonly known as PROTAC) or Molecular Glues. Within the framework of the collaboration, UPPTHERA and ComInnex will co-verify a number of potential novel E3 ligase ligands which have been designed by ComInnex and co-develop TPD chimera molecules to which the novel E3 ligase ligands will be applied. After that, UPPTHERA will manage downstream development (pre-clinical & clinical trials) of the Targeted Protein Degradation pipeline. The chemistry and biology assays will be developed and performed by UPPTHERA whilst ComInnex will perform all chemistry aspects of synthesis, optimization and scale up.

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Under the terms of the collaboration, the companies will share ownership of the projects and cover their own costs of development.

"ComInnex and UPPTHERA are both young and enterprising companies so it makes sense to collaborate in this way to fast track our programs and our experiences in order to bring novel drugs to market," observed Alex Drijver, CEO of ComInnex. "At UPPTHERA we have developed a platform for the identification of new E3 Ligases and our collaboration with ComInnex will allow expansion of novel E3 ligase ligands, which is a key bottleneck in targeted protein degradation drug discovery," added SiWoo Choi, Founder and CEO of UPPTHERA.

On May 4, 2021 Invectys Inc., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company headquartered in Houston and dedicated to the development of a new generation of products for cancer patients, reported that Praveen Tyle, Ph.D., Invectys Inc. President and CEO, and Julien Caumartin, Ph.D. CSO of Invectys SA, will participate in the Roth Virtual Healthcare Private Company Forum, on Monday, June 28th, 2021 (Press release, Invectys, MAY 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234584362]).

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Dr. Tyle will speak on the panel titled "Novel Approaches to Tumor Eradication" at 9:00am a.m. ET. Invectys, Inc focuses on a multi-modality approach to targeting HLA-G on tumor cells and also an approach with universal tumor antigen telomerase.

On May 4, 2021 ISA reported that publication in Nature Reviews Cancer of a review of therapeutic cancer vaccines (Press release, ISA Pharmaceuticals, MAY 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234579041]). The paper is co-authored by ISA’s Chief Scientific Officer, Prof. Cornelis "Kees" Melief in collaboration with key opinion leaders at international institutions including the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy, San Francisco, and the Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands. This is the link to the online article.

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The Nature Reviews Cancer paper summarizes key insights gleaned from previous successful and non-successful therapeutic vaccine trials. It provides an overview of the numerous mechanisms cancer cells use to evade treatment as well as strategies that can be utilized to significantly enhance clinical efficacy of immunotherapies. ISA’s on-going clinical trials are based on this state-of-the art scientific knowledge.

Prof. Kees Melief, Chief Scientific Officer at ISA Pharmaceuticals, said: "Therapeutic cancer vaccines have undergone a resurgence in the past years. This paper highlights key cancer vaccine trials with clinical impact and provides insight on how to improve crucial T cell immune responses and co-treatment for clinical success. Our Synthetic Long Peptide (SLP) technology is amongst the most successful platforms. We have safely completed multiple human clinical studies in hundreds of patients, showing a consistently positive correlation between the size of the vaccine-induced immune response and the clinical response."

Gerben Moolhuizen, Chief Executive Officer of ISA Pharmaceuticals, said: "Scientific knowledge advances through publications and collaborations. We are delighted to have contributed to this paper in Nature Reviews Cancer, co-authored with scientists at prestigious international institutions in the US and The Netherlands. This paper summarises important lessons learned from over a decade of scientific research in the field. It shows that targeted activation of the immune system by therapeutic vaccines can play an important role in beating cancer. We see our SLP therapeutics as a key immunotherapy platform with the potential to substantially improve the treatment of patients with cancer and infectious diseases."

ISA’s product portfolio consists of multiple SLP therapeutics for cancer and infectious diseases. Its SLP approach is designed to unleash a durable and broad T cell immune response to specific diseases. It enables a patient’s own immune system to attack and destroy tumour cells or viruses for significant clinical benefit.

On May 4, 2021 BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX, "BioNTech" or "the Company") reported that it will announce its financial results for the first quarter 2021 on Monday, May 10th, 2021. BioNTech invites investors and the general public to join a conference call and webcast with investment analysts on the same day at 8.00 a.m. EDT (2.00 p.m. CEST) to report its financial results and provide a corporate update for the first quarter 2021 (Press release, BioNTech, MAY 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234579068]).

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The slide presentation and audio of the webcast will be available via this link.

To participate in the conference call, please dial the following numbers ten minutes prior to the start and provide the Conference ID:

Participants may also access the slides and the webcast of the conference call via the "Events & Presentations" page of the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at View Source A replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call and archived on the Company’s website for 30 days following the call.