Marengo Therapeutics Inc. is opening up a new front in the war on cancer by selectively deploying a tumor-infiltrating subpopulation of T cells, which can be activated by a newly identified, antibody-based mechanism. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company is taking forward a scientific concept that has been germinating for several years at founding investor and company creator ATP, which has now launched the firm with an $80 million series A round. Marengo is gearing up for a first clinical trial in 2022. “It’s a new chapter in T-cell biology,” CEO Zhen Su told BioWorld.
DUBLIN – Abalos Therapeutics GmbH raised €32.5 million (US$37.6 million) in a series A extension, taking the total raise to €43 million, enough to enable the company to generate clinical proof-of-concept data with its lead viral immunotherapy for cancer.
Low-grade gliomas with mutated isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) produced and secreted higher levels of the cytokine granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) than other glioma types, which improved their antitumor immune response in animal models.
Paul Peter Tak means business. In one very active year, the entrepreneurial president and CEO of Candel Therapeutics Inc., an oncolytic viral immunotherapy company he said was long run as cost-efficient "semi-academic lab,” has hired on a new chief business officer and CFO, recruited a new research advisory board, and led the company to completion of a $79.1 million IPO. Now, ahead of a weekend presentation of data on one of the company's lead candidates for fast-growing brain tumors, shares (NASDAQ:CADL) that dipped post-IPO are again climbing as the company works to develop a slow-growing class of new medicines.
The European Commission and Astrazeneca plc have ended their legal row over COVID-19 vaccines, while also reaching an agreement over supplies of remaining shots to Europe. The settlement brings to an end an unseemly row over vaccine supply, which further soured relations between the EU and U.K. following Brexit.
LONDON – Newco Macomics Ltd. has closed its first financing round at £7.4 million (US$10.3 million), enabling it to lay the ground for a new approach to addressing immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment by modulating disease-specific macrophages.
DUBLIN – Anocca AB raised $47 million in a series B round to advance its T-cell-based immunotherapies expressing recombinant T-cell receptors (TCRs) toward clinical trials in cancer and to build out its manufacturing capacity at its base in Södertälje, Sweden.
ISA Pharmaceuticals BV has closed a €26 million (US$30.76 million) funding round to advance its cancer immunotherapy product, ISA-101b, in the clinic, as the company aims to tackle the low response rates that hold back this therapeutic approach.
Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is an immunomodulator that initiates development of an inflammatory milieu in the tumor microenvironment, where TCTP regulates high myeloid-derived suppressor cell activity, researchers have reported.
PERTH, Australia – Immutep Ltd. announced a AU$60 million (US$45.1 million) capital raise via two tranches to progress two clinical programs of its lead immunotherapy, eftilagimod alpha, to registration studies.
