ImmunityBio, Codagenix and EuMentis raise funds, while a biotech SPAC dissolves

15 Feb 2023
endpts.com
Phase 2Phase 1VaccineFast Track
While ImmunityBio is involved in arbitration with Sorrento Therapeutics, which filed for bankruptcy this week to protect from the potential capital burden, the California biotech is pulling together $50 million . The direct offering could expand another $10 million if the undisclosed “multiple institutional investors” exercise the full options on warrants, ImmunityBio said Wednesday morning. The stock $IBRX slipped about 6% after the opening bell. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s biotech will find out by the end of May if the FDA has approved its IL-15 agonist N-803, or Anktiva, for BCG-unresponsive CIS non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. ImmunityBio’s pipeline also consists of other investigational therapies and vaccines across multiple cancer types, HIV and Covid-19. — Kyle LaHucik Another biotech-focused blank check company has decided to call it quits. Philadelphia-based Ibere Pharmaceuticals said Wednesday it will redeem all of its outstanding ordinary shares as part of its $138 million 2021 IPO and will not combine with a company by early March, its two-year deadline. The SPAC was led by Osagie Imasogie, a senior managing partner of investment firm PIPV Capital and co-founder of multiple biotechs, including Ception Therapeutics, Iroko Pharmaceuticals, Churchill Pharmaceuticals and others. Ibere follows the path of other blank check operators who raised large sums via an IPO in the hopes of using that capital to help buy a biotech but eventually wound up reneging. — Kyle LaHucik Codagenix said it extended its Series B by $25 million as the private biotech looks to enter the RSV R&D space, which is heating up with FDA decisions expected later this year for GSK , Pfizer and potentially Moderna . The biotech will begin testing its intranasal, live-attenuated investigational vaccine “early” this year, first in a Phase I study in healthy infants and toddlers. The goal is to prevent RSV, known as respiratory syncytial virus, which consumed headlines this winter. FDA applied fast track status to the candidate, dubbed CodaVax-RSV. An early-stage trial of a universal flu jab is ongoing and the company’s intranasal Covid-19 vaccineCovid-19 vaccine candidate is part of a Phase III study at the Serum Institute of India and the WHO. Further down the pipeline, in the preclinical stage, are programs across Yellow fever, dengue, Zika, various cancers and animal health. The Serum Institute contributed to the Series B extension for the Farmingdale, NY and Boston-area biotech, alongside existing backers Euclidean Capital and Adjuvant Capital. — Kyle LaHucik EuMentis Therapeutics will bring two assets into Phase II studies following a $20 million financing haul, which it expects to double as part of an ongoing Series B. The Boston biotech will test EM-113 in a mid-stage study in a certain group of patients with autism spectrum disorder who have elevated glutamate levels in the brain. The company will study another asset, EM-221, in a Phase II in patients with Tourette syndrome. Both trials are slated to begin in the second half of this year, EuMentis said Wednesday. On tap next year is a Phase I study for a traumatic brain injury program, for which the four-year-old startup received US Department of Defense funding . Eumentis is helmed by Mark Tepper, former leader of Corbus Pharmaceuticals and Primatope Therapeutics, which sold to Kiniksa . — Kyle LaHucik Ipsen and the Université de Montréal are expanding a relationship originally struck up in 2020. The French pharma announced Wednesday it will acquire exclusive rights to a preclinical program from the university and a non-profit drug discovery outfit known as IRICoR. Ipsen will now take over development of the drug, The Université de Montréal will net an upfront payment as well as other milestones and potential royalty payments. However, no details on the payments were disclosed. Both Ipsen and the university, along with IRICoR, will be expanding on the partnership with a new multi-year collaboration that includes two programs in oncology. The deal will also see students at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the university be responsible for the advancement of compounds to the candidate stage. “Given Ipsen’s established expertise in oncology, we believe they are a fantastic partner to advance the development of this promising molecule, and we look forward to another fruitful research collaboration to advance breakthrough therapies for patients that are underserved by current standards of care , ” said Michel Bouvier, the director general of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the Université de Montréal, in a release. — Tyler Patchen
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