BriaCell Therapeutics Announces $8.5 Million Offering Priced At-the-Market Under Nasdaq Rules

On September 11, 2024 BriaCell Therapeutics Corp. (Nasdaq: BCTX, BCTXW) (TSX: BCT) ("BriaCell" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that develops novel immunotherapies to transform cancer care, reported the pricing of a best-efforts offering of 12,325,000 common shares (or pre-funded warrants ("Pre-Funded Warrants") in lieu thereof), priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules (Press release, BriaCell Therapeutics, SEP 11, 2024, View Source [SID1234646518]). Each common share (or Pre-Funded Warrant) is being sold at an offering price of $0.69 per share (inclusive of the Pre-Funded Warrant exercise price). All of the common shares and Pre-Funded Warrants in the offering are being offered by the Company. Total gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting the placement agent’s fees and other offering expenses, are expected to be approximately $8.5 million. The offering is expected to close on September 12, 2024, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The Company is relying upon the exemption set forth in Section 602.1 of the TSX Company Manual, which provides that the TSX will not apply its standards to certain transactions involving eligible interlisted issuers on a recognized exchange, such as Nasdaq.

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The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital requirements, general corporate purposes, and the advancement of business objectives.

ThinkEquity is acting as sole placement agent for the offering.

The securities described above are being offered and sold by the Company pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-276650), including a base prospectus, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on January 22, 2024 and declared effective on January 31, 2024. The offering is being made only by means of a written prospectus. A final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering will be filed with the SEC and can be accessed for free on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained, when available, from the offices of ThinkEquity, 17 State Street, 41st Floor, New York, New York 10004.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

BriaCell Reports Positive Overall Survival (OS) in Metastatic Breast Cancer

On September 11, 2024 BriaCell Therapeutics Corp. (Nasdaq: BCTX, BCTXW) (TSX: BCT) ("BriaCell" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that develops novel immunotherapies to transform cancer care, reported positive overall survival data of its Phase 2 clinical study of Bria-IMT in combination with an immune check point inhibitor (CPI) in late stage metastatic breast cancer (Press release, BriaCell Therapeutics, SEP 11, 2024, View Source [SID1234646519]).

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Median overall survival of 15.6 months is reported in BriaCell’s most recent patients (treated since 2022) vs. 6.7-9.3 months for similar patients reported in the literature (see table below). These patients are being treated with the same Bria-IMT formulation currently being used in BriaCell’s ongoing Phase 3 pivotal study in metastatic breast cancer (listed on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06072612) and represent patients enrolled post-COVID when full study activities resumed.

This represents a substantial improvement over BriaCell’s 13.4 months median overall survival previously reported in December 2023.

"Overall survival in patients with heavily pre-treated metastatic breast cancer is very poor," stated Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, Professor of Medicine, Fred Hutch Cancer Center and University of Washington and BriaCell medical advisory board member. "The BriaCell early data is quite encouraging from both efficacy and tolerability standpoints."

"We wanted to look at the Phase 2 data of those patients who most closely resemble the patients being treated in our ongoing phase 3 study and compare them to similar patients in the literature," stated Dr. William V. Williams, BriaCell’s President and CEO. "The nearly two-fold overall survival benefit we are seeing with the Bria-IMT regimen, together with the similar previously reported approximate doubling of progression free survival, compared with literature controls, strongly support our belief that Bria-IMT could have a meaningful impact in the lives of heavily pre-treated metastatic breast cancer patients. We look forward to further clinical development of Bria-IMT with the goal of establishing it as a new standard of care for patients with metastatic breast cancer."

"The Bria-IMT regimen is the only investigational drug we have seen to show these impressive survival numbers in heavily pre-treated metastatic breast cancer patients who have failed numerous prior treatments including immune check point inhibitors and antibody drug conjugates," stated Giuseppe Del Priore, MD, MPH, BriaCell’s Chief Medical Officer. "These survival and clinical benefit data support BriaCell’s hypothesis of additive and/or synergistic effects of immune check point inhibitors with Bria-IMT and drive the ongoing pivotal study of our combination regimen in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer."

The Phase 2 study enrolled 54 heavily pre-treated metastatic breast cancer patients (average number of prior treatments = 6) who were treated with the Bria-IMT regimen and an immune checkpoint inhibitor. Of these 54 patients, 37 were treated with the Phase 3 formulation and 25 of these were treated post-COVID when full study activities resumed. This data represents an additional six months of follow-up of the survival data presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in December 2023.

Tyra Biosciences to Present at the 2024 Cantor Global Healthcare Conference

On September 11, 2024 Tyra Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: TYRA), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing next-generation precision medicines that target large opportunities in Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor (FGFR) biology, reported its participation at the 2024 Cantor Global Healthcare Conference (Press release, Tyra Biosciences, SEP 11, 2024, View Source [SID1234646520]).

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Todd Harris, CEO of TYRA, will participate in a fireside chat on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at 9:45 am ET. TYRA management will also participate in one-on-one meetings with investors during the conference.

A live and archived webcast of the fireside chat will be available via the For Investors page on the Investor section of the TYRA website.

BIOVAXYS ANNOUNCES CLOSING OF THIRD TRANCHE OF PRIVATE PLACEMENT

On September 11, 2024 BioVaxys Technology Corp. (CSE: BIOV) (FRA: 5LB) ("BioVaxys" or the "Company") reported that it has closed the third tranche (the "Third Tranche") of its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement") with the issuance of 6,100,000 units (the "Units") of the Company at a price of $0.05 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $305,000.00 (Press release, BioVaxys Technology, SEP 11, 2024, View Source [SID1234646521]).

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Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Share") and one whole common share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"), whereby each Warrant is convertible into one additional Share at an exercise price of $0.15 until September 11, 2026, being the date that is 24 months from the date of issue.

The Company intends to use the proceeds of the Private Placement for general working capital purposes, including enabling the Company to fund and advance its business plans in regard to its successful recent acquisition of the entire portfolio of discovery, preclinical and clinical development stage assets in oncology, infectious disease, antigen desensitization, and other immunological fields based on the DPX immune educating platform technology, developed by the former Canadian biotechnology company, IMV Inc., Immunovaccine Technologies Inc., which was purchased from IMV USA ("IMV") on February 16, 2024.

No finder’s fees were paid in connection with the Third Tranche of the Private Placement. All securities issued pursuant to the Third Tranche are subject to a statutory hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws expiring January 12, 2025, being the date that is four months and one day from the date of closing of the Third Tranche.

James Passin, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company, participated in the Third Tranche of the Private Placement by purchasing 6,000,000 Units for $300,000. The participation by Mr. Passin, as an insider of the Company, constitutes a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the Units purchased by Mr. Passin, nor the consideration for the Units paid by Mr. Passin, exceeded 25% of the Company’s market capitalization. The Company did not file a material change report in respect of the related party transaction at least 21 days before the closing of the Third Tranche of the Private Placement, which the Company deems reasonable in the circumstances in order to complete the Third Tranche in an expeditious manner.

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to available exemptions therefrom. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any securities in the United States.

BeyondSpring Delivers Oral Presentation at ISLAC 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer of its Lead Anti-Cancer Asset Plinabulin Showcasing Positive Final Phase 3 Data in 2L/3L NSCLC EGFR Wild-Type with Concurrent Publication in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine

On September 10, 2024 BeyondSpring Inc. (NASDAQ: BYSI) ("BeyondSpring" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage global biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative cancer therapies, reported Dublin-3 final phase 3 efficacy data of its late clinical-stage agent Plinabulin in combination with docetaxel in second/third line (2L/3L) advanced and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) wild-type (Press release, BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals, SEP 10, 2024, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beyondspring-delivers-oral-presentation-at-islac-2024-world-conference-on-lung-cancer-of-its-lead-anti-cancer-asset-plinabulin-showcasing-positive-final-phase-3-data-in-2l-3l-nsclc-egfr-wild-type-with [SID1234646466]). The lead principal investigator, Dr. Trevor Feinstein from Piedmont Cancer Institute, presented the data in an oral presentation (OA08.04) at ISLAC 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer on September 9th 2024 in San Diego, CA. Concurrently, Dublin-3 study was published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine (View Source(24)00178-4).

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Docetaxel remains the standard of care for patients with 2L/3L NSCLC without targetable alterations despite severe neutropenia (>40%) that greatly impair patients’ quality of life. Six recent phase 3 studies in patients with EGFR wild-type NSCLC who were previously treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors failed to show overall survival (OS) benefit compared with docetaxel (SAPPHIRE, LEAP-008, CONTACT01, EVOKE-01, CARMEN-LC03, and CANOPY-2). Two phase 3 studies (LUNAR and TROPION-Lung01) showed positive but mixed outcomes compared with docetaxel.

The DUBLIN-3 study was a multicenter, randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled trial that enrolled patients from 58 medical centers internationally. For the intention-to-treat (ITT) population, 559 patients received either docetaxel plus plinabulin (n=278 [male 199, female 79]) or docetaxel plus placebo (n=281 [male 207, female 74]).

Key findings of Dublin-3 study are summarized below:

Favorable benefit/risk ratio: Significant improvement in OS (Hazard ratio or HR=0.82; same HR in the Western vs. Asian patients), PFS (HR=0.79) and ORR (nearly doubled). Durable anti-cancer benefits in doubling 24-months and 36-months OS rates. And 82% relative reduction in Grade 4 neutropenia in Cycle 1 Day 8 (p<0.0001).
Consistent OS benefit in 24-month follow up after the database lock: OS HR=0.81 in the ITT population, with better OS benefit in the non-squamous subset (OS HR=0.72, p=0.0078). For the non-squamous subset patients, median OS (mOS) in plinabulin/docetaxel arm was 11.4 months vs. 8.8 months in the docetaxel arm, with a mOS benefit of 2.6 months.
Improved OS benefit with more cycles of treatment (≥ 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 cycles): for patients who used at least 4 cycles of treatment, OS HR=0.64, p=0.0027, with a mOS benefit of 4.8 months (plinabulin/docetaxel arm n=133; docetaxel arm n=127).
Plinabulin/docetaxel combination is well-tolerated: Treatment-emergent adverse-events occurred in 273/274 (99·6%) of patients in the plinabulin group and 276/278 (99·3%) in the control group. Higher incidences of Grade 3/4 gastrointestinal disorders (46 patients [16·8%] vs. 8 [2·9%]) and transient Grade 3 hypertension (50 patients [18·2%] vs. 8 [2·9%]) occurred in the plinabulin vs. control group.
"There is a poor prognosis for NSCLC patients without targetable alterations whose disease has progressed on platinum-based therapies. Unfortunately, multiple high-profile phase 3 studies failed to show overall survival benefit in this hard-to-treat population compared to standard of care docetaxel, a drug approved over 20 years ago. The data from DUBLIN-3 study demonstrates that the addition and proper sequencing of plinabulin to docetaxel has a favorable benefit/risk ratio compared with docetaxel alone and may have broad utility. This combination could be considered as a new treatment option for this population with high unmet medical needs", said Dr. Feinstein, a lead principal investigator of the DUBLIN-3 study at Piedmont Cancer Center, Atlanta.

Citation:

Han B., et al. Plinabulin plus docetaxel versus docetaxel in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer after disease progression on platinum-based regimen (DUBLIN-3): a phase 3, international, multicentre, single-blind, parallel group, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Respir Med. 2024 Sep 09: S2213-2600(24)00178-4.

About Plinabulin

Plinabulin is a novel first-in-class dendritic cell maturation agent with durable anti-cancer benefit observed across multiple clinical studies. As a reversible binder at a distinct tubulin pocket, plinabulin does not change tubulin dynamics or antagonize tubulin stabilizing agents, such as docetaxel, which contributes to its differentiated activity and tolerability compared to other tubulin binders. In addition, plinabulin significantly reduces chemotherapy induced neutropenia and could thereby increase docetaxel tolerability. Over 700 patients have been treated with plinabulin with good tolerability.

About Dublin-3 Study
DUBLIN-3 is a multicenter, single-blinded (patient) and randomized, phase 3 trial in 58 medical centers (US, China, and Australia). Only patients with EGFR wild-type NSCLC who had progressed after first-line platinum-based therapy were enrolled. Patients were randomized (1:1) to receive docetaxel (75 mg/m2) on Day 1 and either plinabulin (30 mg/m2) or placebo on Days 1 and 8 in 21-day cycles until progression, unacceptable toxicity, withdrawal, or death. Treated patients were included in the safety analysis and ITT population in the primary efficacy analyses (NCT02504489). The primary endpoint for the study was OS, and secondary endpoints were PFS, ORR, Duration of Response (DoR), Grade 4 neutropenia and Quality of Life.