The new capital will be used primarily to develop a novel clinical stage asset targeting the CD24-Siglec pathway that regulates host inflammatory response to tissue injuries, which has broad implications in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD).
OncoImmune will continue clinical testing of its lead clinical product, CD24Fc, in a Phase II trial for the prevention of acute GvHD following myeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. CD24Fc has received orphan drug designation for GvHD in both the US and Europe.
The funding will also support development of other immuno-oncology (IO) assets with a focus on solid tumor targeting monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccines, and immunotherapy-related adverse events.
OncoImmune CEO and cofounder Yang Liu said: “We are very excited that the new funding will allow us not only to move our clinical stage product forward, but also to further develop our rich IO pipeline.”
3E partner Karen Liu said: “OncoImmune is driven by good science.
“We are excited to support development of this first in class product targeting negative regulation of innate immunity.”