Contact Information: US MEDIA CONTACT: Debra Bannister 530 676-8001
REGiMMUNE Raises $8,000,000 in Series B Financing
| Source: REGiMMUNE
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA and TOKYO--(Marketwire - May 6, 2008) - REGiMMUNE Corporation, a
privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has
closed its Series B financing for a total of $8 million U.S. Proceeds from
the financing will be used to advance the company's lead program, RGI-2001,
to human clinical trials for graft versus host disease (GvHD). Preclinical
development for GvHD associated with bone marrow transplantation has been
completed and an Investigation New Drug application is expected to be filed
in late 2008.
"This financing underscores our ability to make significant progress
towards the clinic and eventual product commercialization," commented
Haru Morita, President and Chief Executive Officer of REGiMMUNE. "To
thrive as REGiMMUNE has, in a very difficult business environment for many
biotech companies in Japan, is a particularly great achievement."
New and existing investors include NIF SMBC Ventures Co., Ltd.; CSK Venture
Capital Co., Ltd.; Japan Asia Investment Co., Ltd. and Yasuda Enterprise
Development Co., Ltd.
The company's proprietary technology platform, MultiVax, induces
antigen-specific immune tolerance via induction of Tregs, a T-cell subset
that plays a central role in controlling immune responses to self-antigens
and pathogens when administered at the time of exposure to disease-causing
antigens. Because of its specificity in targeting immune suppression,
MultiVax is anticipated to exhibit higher efficacies with more favorable
safety profiles over current immunomodulatory drugs.
RGI-2001 for GvHD
REGiMMUNE plans to start development of its MultiVax product RGI-2001 to
treat GvHD following allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) primarily
for bone marrow transplants. A major clinical challenge associated with
allogeneic SCT is to maintain a fine balance of the immune system to
prevent GvHD, serious infection, and/or recurrence of malignancy. This
balance is critical because intensive immune suppression will result in
infection and recurrence of malignancy while insufficient immune
suppression may cause GvHD.
Serious GvHD occurs in up to 40% of HLA-matched allogeneic SCT cases, and
100% in haploidentical, related allogeneic SCT. Current treatment is
prophylactic use of immunosuppressants such as cyclosporine A. High-dose
steroids are administered once GvHD occurs but the condition often
progresses to steroid refractory status and there is no proven second-line
therapy for steroid refractory GvHD. Prevention and treatment of GvHD thus
represent high unmet medical needs addressing serious, life-threatening
conditions. If alloantigen specific, selective immune suppression can be
induced with RGI-2001, it would be possible to suppress GvHD while
maintaining protective immune responses to infection and recurrence of
malignancy.
About REGiMMUNE
REGiMMUNE is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development
and commercialization of immune regulatory therapeutics to treat
life-threatening and debilitating conditions, including allergies,
autoimmune diseases and inflammatory disorders. In addition to its
potential for GvHD, MultiVax is a therapeutic candidate for autoimmune
diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Systemic Lupus, in which
down-regulation of and/or dysfunction of regulatory T-cells lead to serious
up-regulation of immunity against the auto-antigen. reVax is the company's
second proprietary technology platform, which works by modulating the
immune system by enhancing antigen-specific immune regulatory cells. This
technique is expected to be useful in conditions such as Ragweed Allergy,
Rheumatoid Arthritis and MS, where control of an abnormal immune response
is desirable. reVax is being utilized to advance several compounds through
clinical development and eventual commercialization of a broad range of
products for REGiMMUNE and its partners. The company is headquartered in
Tokyo, Japan and has a U.S. subsidiary in Mountain View, California. For
more information, please visit www.regimmune.com.