Immunotherapy biotech unstealths with $13M; Anti-infection candidate for CF passes safety trial

13 Mar 2023
endpts.com
Phase 2Immunotherapy
Shennon Biotechnologies has raised $13 million in seed funding for a single cell platform to create more effective immunotherapies. The company says the platform can “profile millions of immune cells functionally at the single cell level within a few hours” in order to identify TCR or antibody targets. “This technology has the potential to overcome a key bottleneck in immunotherapy by identifying rare antigen-specific immune cells through enabling high-throughput analysis of functional pairing between effector and target cells in a way that was previously impossible,” Joseph Fraietta , a scientific advisor for Shennon and director of the Solid Tumor Immunotherapy Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement . The seed funding will be used to expand the platform and build a pipeline of targets for solid tumors. According to the company, over the last year and a half the platform has already found rare, functionally activated T cells, and Shennon has established connections with clinical centers to study patient samples. DCVC led the funding round. — Katherine Lewin Aridis Pharmaceuticals said its inhaled drug AR-501, meant to combat lung infections, has passed a Phase IIa trial looking at safety outcomes in cystic fibrosis patients. All in all, Aridis found that the majority of adverse events that occurred during the 42-person trial were mild and related to the respiratory system, such as a cough or throat irritation. There was one grade 3 adverse event of dry throat and cough. Aridis’ treatment is an inhaled form of gallium citrate meant to treat chronic lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis. Participants in the trial either had confirmed infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa , the bacteria that causes pneumonia, or other potential infections. While this study looked at three doses of the drug — 6.4 mg, 20 mg, and 40 mg — Aridis plans to continue the study with an 80 mg dose cohort. The Los Gatos, CA-based biotech said data from that cohort are expected in the second half of this year. — Lei Lei Wu
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