1stOncology™: Cancer Intelligence Service – Page 8774 – 1stOncology is recognized as a Top 10 Global Pharma Analytic Provider

The European Innovation Council Fund supports RemedyBio with an €8M investment facility adding to EIC’s previous €2.5M grant award. Funds enable RemedyBio to further develop its Rapid Pandemic Response Platform and its proprietary NanoreactorTM immune discovery platform

On July 20, 2021 RemedyBio, an immunology focused discovery and development company, reported the final closing of an additional €8M ($9.4M) in equity financing from the EIC Fund, completing a €10.5M ($12.4M) funding award to the company by the EIC Accelerator (Press release, Remedy Biologics, JUL 20, 2021, View Source [SID1234644116]). This additional €8M financing complements the EIC grant funding of €2.5M ($3M) already awarded to RemedyBio in June 2020, to develop a Rapid Pandemic Response Platform based on its proprietary NanoreactorTM platform. This financing follows RemedyBio’s selection from almost 4,000 company proposals submitted to the EIC Accelerator in 2020.

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

RemedyBio’s technology is designed to rapidly and simultaneously analyze millions of single immune cells from an individual sample. After succeeding in flagging powerful new antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from the immune system of COVID-19 infected patients, the platform is now being tuned to respond to new variants and future diseases. The aim is to create a rapid passive therapy against new strains of COVID-19 and, primarily, to control future pandemics more rapidly, by making therapies for new viruses available in less than 90 days.

"This financing from the EIC Fund will enable us to advance our technology development and therapeutic discovery activities, and forge collaborations with leading pharma partners and key clinical and research groups," said Daniel Crowley, CEO of RemedyBio. "We are delighted to have the support of the EIC Fund. It fills an important financing gap, supporting European companies with innovative technologies to create deep scientific programs and commercial partnerships. In our case, this will drive transformative biological insights and new therapy discoveries."

This investment will fund the significant development of RemedyBio’s innovative, proprietary Nanoreactor platform as well as advancing its key therapeutic pipeline assets. The Nanoreactor platform has been developed by RemedyBio, originating from intellectual property exclusively licensed from Dublin City University (DCU), following a decade-long R&D programme led by Dr. Paul Leonard, the company’s chief scientist and co-founder. The platform has created a step-change in the speed, scale and quality of single cell analysis and discovery, paving the way for powerful new antibodies and cell therapies. Its high-throughput identification capabilities open fresh insights into immune system interactions – driving a new era in precision medicine against viral diseases, cancer and auto-immune disorders.

"At Enterprise Ireland, we welcome this substantial EIC Fund investment in an Irish high potential start-up," said Garrett Murray, national director for Horizon Europe at Enterprise Ireland. "RemedyBio is a great example of an Irish company that has succeeded in winning competitive funding through the EIC and, in Ireland, through the Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (DTIF) for oncology cell therapy applications, to help fund its development

and advance its scaling strategy. Enterprise Ireland is here to support and advise ambitious and innovative Irish start-ups considering application for competitive EIC financing as part of their funding journey."
Heidi Kakko, member of the Investment Committee of the European Innovation Council Fund said, "This financing round will enable Remedy Biologics to develop a Rapid COVID- 19 Passive Therapy Response Platform. We are glad the EIC Fund is supporting this breakthrough company, which is playing a pioneering role in creating new solutions in immune therapeutics. This shows how the EU contribution is crucial in tackling the Covid19 response."
About the EIC Fund
Established in June 2020, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund) is a breakthrough initiative of the European Commission to make direct equity and quasi- equity investments (between €500.000 and €15 million) in European high impact and deep tech start-ups and scale ups. The EIC Fund provides patient capital and invests in companies from any sector, across all EU countries and countries associated to Horizon 2020.
The EIC Fund aims to fill a critical financing gap and its main purpose is to have a high impact by accompanying companies with disruptive technologies in their growth. Its objective is to crowd in market players, further sharing risks by building a large network of capital providers and strategic partners suitable for co-investments and follow-on funding. The Fund pays particular attention to empower and support female founders as well as contributing to reduce the innovation divide among EU countries. www.eic.ec.europa.eu/investment-opportunities
About Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland (EI) services are geared towards helping Irish companies win international sales. These services include funding support, export assistance, development of competitiveness in international markets, R&D and assistance with R&D collaboration. EI also provides access to its global network of contacts. www.enterprise-ireland.com

iOnctura Announces First Subject Dosed in Healthy Volunteer Study of Next Generation Autotaxin Inhibitor IOA-289

On July 20, 2021 iOnctura SA, a clinical stage oncology company targeting core resistance and relapse mechanisms at the tumor-stroma-immune interface, reported the start of clinical development for its second program, a next generation autotaxin inhibitor designated IOA-289 (Press release, iOnctura, JUL 20, 2021, View Source [SID1234640246]). IOA-289 will be the first autotaxin inhibitor to be investigated in oncology.

The Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) has authorized a phase 1a dose-escalation study for IOA-289 in healthy volunteers. The healthy volunteer study prepares the way for a phase 1b trial of IOA-289, which iOnctura plans to conduct in patients with pancreatic cancer. iOnctura’s Phase Ib trial in pancreatic cancer is expected to begin in 2022.

"We are very excited to progress our highly differentiated autotaxin inhibitor, IOA-289, as our second clinical program," said Catherine Pickering, CEO of iOnctura. "This is another significant milestone for iOnctura demonstrating our strong development pipeline and capabilities of our team. We are looking forward to translating the promise demonstrated in our preclinical studies into humans."

In many types of cancer, including pancreatic cancer, high expression of autotaxin and the product it generates (lysophosphatidic acid – LPA) correlate with poor outcomes. IOA-289 has a unique chemistry and has demonstrated promising effects in several preclinical solid tumor models including pancreatic cancer. It has also exhibited greater potency and less toxicity than first-generation autotaxin inhibitors that have until now only been trialed in fibrotic disease indications.

The Phase 1a healthy volunteer study will involve a total of forty volunteers (2 receiving placebo, and 6 actively dosed in each of 5 dose escalation cohorts) and will explore a 10-fold dose-range of IOA-289. Topline data from the study are expected to be available in Q4 2021.

The short preparatory study in healthy volunteers will garner key information on the safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of IOA-289 enabling iOnctura to accelerate into a Phase 1b trial in pancreatic cancer.

Erasca Announces Closing of Initial Public Offering and Full Exercise of Underwriters’ Option to Purchase Additional Shares

On July 20, 2021 Erasca, Inc. (Nasdaq: ERAS), a clinical-stage precision oncology company singularly focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing therapies for patients with RAS/MAPK pathway-driven cancers, reported the closing of its initial public offering of 21,562,500 shares of common stock, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase 2,812,500 additional shares, at an initial public offering price of $16.00 per share (Press release, Erasca, JUL 20, 2021, View Source [SID1234639385]). The aggregate gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses payable by Erasca, were $345.0 million. Erasca’s common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "ERAS."

J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Evercore ISI, and Guggenheim Securities acted as joint book-running managers for the offering.

Registration statements relating to the offering have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and became effective on July 15, 2021. A prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering has been filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. The offering was made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus may be obtained from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, by telephone at (866) 803-9204, or by email at [email protected]; from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, or by email at [email protected]; from BofA Securities, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd Floor, Charlotte, North Carolina 28255-0001, Attention: Prospectus Department, or by email at [email protected]; from Evercore Group L.L.C., Attention: Equity Capital Markets, 55 East 52nd Street, 35th Floor, New York, New York 10055, by telephone at (888) 474-0200, or by email at [email protected]; or from Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 330 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10017, by telephone at (212) 518-9544, or by email at [email protected].

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

Ubix therapeutics kick off an IND-enabling studis of bruton’s tyrosine kinase degrader

On July 20th, 2021 South Korea-based biotech company, Ubix Therapeutics (www.ubixtrx.com), reported the current status of their lead program, UBX-303, which utilizes Ubix’s platform technology, Degraducer (Press release, Ubix Therapeutics, JUL 20, 2021, View Source [SID1234635871]). UBX-303 is a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) targeting molecule for the treatment of B-cell malignancies, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Ubix recently signed partnership agreements with global CRO and CDMO companies to initiate GLP toxicology studies as well as large-scale manufacturing of UBX-303 in preparation for submitting an Investigational New Drug (IND) application.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients face significant unmet needs, including the lack of treatment options for relapsed or refractory CLL, drug-induced resistance, and adverse events. Available BTK inhibitors can bind to off-target kinases, such as ITK and EGFR, causing side effects or can have limited long-term efficacy due to drug resistance, which most commonly occurs by the C481S mutation.

UBX-303 has been designed to demonstrate efficacy by degrading over-expressed BTK proteins and has a different modality than current BTK inhibitors. Its distinct mechanism of action, the decomposing and removal of BTK proteins in cells, is expected to bring about overall advantages, in particular demonstrating superior efficacy, overcoming resistance, and increasing selectivity for target proteins.

"UBX-303 showed excellent PK/PD profiles in the non-clinical studies conducted so far, and superior anti-cancer efficacy in the C481S mutant Xenograft mouse model as well as in the wild type. We expect UBX-303 to address unmet medical needs for B cell-related diseases, including CLL and DLBCL, and to expand its indications for immunological disorders." said BK Seo, CEO of Ubix Therapeutics.

About Degraducer
Degraducer is a technology that utilizes the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), an intracellular degradation system. Degraducer is a bifunctional molecule where a "ligand", which binds to target protein, and a "binder", which binds to E3 ubiquitin ligase. In other words, Degraducer is a powerful inhibitor technology that enables target protein degradation and consequent therapeutic effects by placing a disease-related target protein nearby E3 ligase, which can then initiate the protein degradation system.

Akoya to Report Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results on August 10, 2021

On July 20, 2021 Akoya Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKYA) ("Akoya"), The Spatial Biology Company, reported that it will release financial results for the second quarter of 2021 after the market close on Tuesday, August 10, 2021 (Press release, Akoya Biosciences, JUL 20, 2021, View Source [SID1234590278]). Company management will host a conference call to discuss financial results at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Investors interested in listening to the conference call may do so by dialing (833) 562-0146 for domestic callers or (661) 567-1226 for international callers, followed by Conference ID: 8057237. A live and archived webcast of the event will be available on the "Investors" section of the Akoya website at View Source