Associate

Immunicon Corp. raised about $25 million in a private placement - its second largest round - and now can focus on commercializing its products.

"We have two broad purposes for the financing," said James Murphy, senior vice president of finance and administration at Immunicon, as well as chief financial officer. "First, to complete the initial commercialization of our cancer diagnostics products, particularly in breast cancer. And then also to use some of the money to broaden our applications for the technology into other rare-cell diagnostic applications."

This $24.75 million convertible preferred equity round is second only to the $28.75 million financing it closed in January 2002 and gives the company a raised-to-date total of more than $100 million, $86 million of that through equity. Murphy said the funds should last Huntingdon Valley, Pa.-based Immunicon about two years.

"That's somewhat dynamic, though, in that we expect to be commercializing products at the end of this year and should expect some contributions from those products in '04 and beyond," he told BioWorld Today.

Looking ahead, he said that "given the potential of the platform," the company anticipates needing at least one more financing in the future to fully exploit it.

Privately held Immunicon's platform is based on several technologies for the separation, isolation, manipulation and analysis of cells, and in particular, rare cells. Using CellTracks Technology, which is incorporated in the CellTracks AutoPrep System, CellSearch reagents and the CellTracks Analyzer, the platform is capable of capturing and analyzing rare cells in blood and potentially other bodily fluids, said Edward Erickson, CEO, president and company chairman.

"We can find, literally, one cell in a test tube of blood," he told BioWorld Today. That ability is applicable in testing patients who have some form of solid tumor cancer, and initially the company is progressing toward that. However, Erickson said the technology also might be used to detect various types of infections, including fungal, and also to analyze fetal cells in maternal blood to look for potential health issues.

The company said it is in clinical studies that should lead to an FDA submission this year for its first cancer-monitoring product. Along those lines, it formed an alliance with Advanced Diagnostic and Cellular Systems, a division of Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc., which is a Johnson & Johnson company. Advanced Diagnostics will market any cancer diagnostic and screening product.

For other areas, Immunicon plans to enter additional alliances, it said. Erickson said the company is following a three-part submission strategy.

"One [area] is to draw blood in a standard sample tube and preserve those tubes," he said. "That is filed as a 510(k) into the [FDA]. Those tubes go into sample preservation devices - that cleared the FDA in 2002 - and we have a fully automated version we expect to submit later this year or early 2004. The last piece is CellTracks, which is a cellular analysis platform. That also is submitted to the FDA."

There will be other submissions later for specific clinical indications, he said. Now, though, the company is moving ahead with about $25 million more to work with. Considering manufacturing, the purchase of materials and eventual commercialization, Erickson said the funds "will be sure to allow us to do all the things we need to do."

Participating in the offering were TL Ventures, of Philadelphia; Claneil Enterprises Inc., of Philadelphia; Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., of New Brunswick, N.J.; Canaan Partners, of Rowayton, Conn.; Anthem Capital, of Baltimore; Burrill & Co., of San Francisco; Foundation Medical Partners, of Rowayton; Wheatley Partners, of New York; MDS Capital Corp. of Canada, of Toronto; The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, of Cleveland; equity4Life, of Zurich, Switzerland; and MedCapital Investments, of Florham Park, N.J.