immatics receives €22 million final tranche of Series D fundraising
Funds will be used to complete phase 3 study with IMA901 and to invest in the expansion of immatics’ Human Immunopeptidome Program to identify the most relevant targets for cancer immunotherapies
Tuebingen, 16. July 2014 - immatics biotechnologies GmbH, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leading the development of advanced immunotherapies that are active against cancer, today announces that it has received €22m to complete a Series D financing round. The Company received €12m in October 2013 as an initial tranche of the total €34m funding round.
The Series D funding was supported by existing investors including dievini Hopp Biotech holding, Wellington Partners, and AT Impf GmbH and others.
immatics will use this funding to complete the current phase 3 trial with its lead cancer vaccine IMA901 in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The trial is evaluating overall survival with IMA901 in combination with sunitinib (Sutent®, Pfizer), a current standard first-line therapy, compared with sunitinib alone in patients with metastatic and/ or locally advanced RCC. Following a planned interim analysis, the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) has recommended that the trial continues until completion. Final data from the study are expected in 2015. IMA901 is a rationally designed cancer vaccine comprising 10 different tumor-associated peptides (TUMAPs) that are found to be highly over-expressed in the majority of patients suffering from RCC.
The fundraising will also allow immatics to invest in its unique XPRESIDENT® platform to extend its “Human Immunopeptidome[1] Program” which is focused on identifying hundreds of novel, high quality targets for the most common cancer indications. As part of this program, immatics will also use XPRESIDENT® to screen the immunopeptidome of relevant healthy tissue to ensure the selectivity of its novel targets based on their exclusive or strong over-presentation in tumors vs. healthy tissues. The program will also further strengthen the Company’s IP position around all highly over-presented TUMAPs given their value as targets for a range of immunotherapy approaches including cancer vaccines, adoptive cellular therapy and antibodies/soluble T-cell receptors that promise important advances in the treatment of virtually every type of cancer.
Paul Higham, CEO of immatics, said: “The completion of our Series D fundraising demonstrates the continued commitment to the Company’s strategy to generate value from our TUMAP-based approach to cancer immunotherapy. The independent DSMB’s recommendation means that we will work to complete our phase 3 trial with IMA901 in patients with renal cell carcinoma and we remain on track to announce the final results of this study in 2015. In addition, by investing in our Human Immunopeptidome Program we intend to extend our global leadership in the discovery of tumor-associated peptides. We expect these specific, high quality targets to play a crucial role in delivering the significant promise of cancer immunotherapy as they act as a very specific ‘navigation system’ for the body’s T cells, allowing them to be used to treat a wide range of cancers.”
[1] The Immunopeptidome constitutes the entity of peptides presented by HLA receptors on the surface of cells including tumor cells and is the most relevant information to help T cells to differentiate between healthy and diseased cells.
-Ends-
For additional information on immatics please visit www.immatics.com or contact:
Paul Higham, CEO
Dr. Nikola Wiegeler, Assistant to the Management
immatics biotechnologies GmbH
Phone: +49 7071 5397 110
E-mail: media@immatics.com
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
David Dible / Chris Gardner / Sita Shah
Phone: +44 207 638 9571
E-mail: david.dible@citigatedr.co.uk
About immatics
immatics biotechnologies GmbH is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leading the development of advanced immunotherapies that are active against cancer. immatics’ lead product, IMA901, is in a pivotal phase 3 study after completing a successful randomised phase 2 trial in renal cell carcinoma. immatics’ pipeline also includes IMA910, which has reported encouraging overall survival data in patients with advanced colorectal cancer, and IMA950, which has completed a phase 1 study in patients with glioma. immatics’ vaccines contain multiple tumor-associated peptides (TUMAPs) to maximize the chances of clinical success by increasing the number of targets on cancer cells that they address and are ‘drug-like’, i.e., fully synthetic, off-the-shelf, easily scalable, and stable.
immatics’ unique and world-leading technology platform XPRESIDENT® discovers novel relevant cancer antigens known to be expressed on tumor cells. These TUMAPs constitute the basis for developing therapeutic cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies including peptide-targeting compounds such as antibodies, soluble T-cell receptors and adoptive cellular therapies. In contrast to widely used existing in silico and indirect methods to identify peptide antigens, immatics’ TUMAPs are confirmed to be naturally expressed in primary cancer tissue.
immatics signed a cancer immunotherapy collaboration with Roche in November 2013 to research, develop and commercialize a number of new TUMAP-based cancer vaccine candidates and other immunotherapies, targeting primarily gastric, prostate and non-small cell lung cancer.
immatics is based in Tuebingen and Martinsried (Munich), Germany, and employs approx. 80 people (FTEs).
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