Immatics biotechnologies, 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 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.”
