On April 2, 2020 GPB Scientific, Inc., a developer of breakthrough technologies for therapeutic cell production and bioprocessing, reported a $25.5 million funding commitment (Press release, GPB Scientific, APR 2, 2020, View Source [SID1234556113]). The financing is led by Vensana Capital alongside strategic investor Amgen Ventures with ongoing participation by existing investors.

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GPB Scientific previewed its Curate Cell Processing System in January at the Phacilitate World Leaders / Stem Cell Summit, where it attracted high interest for its exceptional performance. The Curate system utilizes its proprietary microfluidic deterministic lateral displacement technology in an easy-to-use closed system that has demonstrated the ability to deliver high yield and quality to process CAR-T, stem, and other cells with the throughput and scalability required for cell and gene therapies.

"Vensana Capital looks to support entrepreneurs with medical technology products that can be scaled to have significant impact on healthcare. GPB’s Curate system can dramatically reduce the overall manufacturing cost, therapeutic yield losses, and process time for producing life-saving cell therapies for cancer and other diseases," said Justin Klein, M.D., co-founder and managing partner at Vensana Capital. "The enhanced cell quality and higher yield not only address current cell therapy manufacturing cost and challenges but also have the potential to enhance the therapeutic benefits for patients. With investment from our inaugural fund we will help GPB drive the clinical assessment, GMP production, and commercialization of the Curate system."

"The Curate system is poised to be transformative for cell and gene therapies," said Philip Tagari, Amgen Vice President, Therapeutic Discovery. "As the industry works to implement reliable, efficient and cost-effective systems for the global deployment of these breakthrough medical treatments, GPB has devised an elegant yet powerful solution for cell separation, washing and concentration. The broad potential of this innovation aligns with Amgen’s mission to partner with innovators in the fight against serious illness."

"We are grateful for the support and confidence that Vensana and Amgen Ventures have placed in GPB Scientific for the continued development and commercialization of our Curate system," said Mike Grisham, CEO of GBP Scientific. "Our company was founded with a commitment to apply the groundbreaking microfluidic technology we have developed to get people better, and the strength of this $25.5 million financing will ensure we achieve that goal."

On April 2, 2020 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) reported the completion of its acquisition of the core assets of Icagen’s North Carolina operations (Press release, Ligand, APR 2, 2020, View Source [SID1234556112]). As previously announced, the purchase price was $15 million in cash, and Icagen is entitled to receive additional cash payments based on certain revenue achievements.

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"We are very pleased to add the Icagen technologies, partnerships and this profitable business to Ligand," said John Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand. "We all know how extremely challenging the current business environment is, and I want to commend the teams on both sides who worked together to get this deal done. It’s a fantastic acquisition that will enable Ligand to expand its services to current partners and drive new collaborations. We expect the Icagen ion channel capabilities will have particular synergy with our Vernalis and OmniAb antibody discovery platforms. We welcome our new Icagen colleagues to Ligand."

Higgins continued, "While we adjust to conducting business during the pandemic, Ligand’s balance sheet remains very strong, and we continue to generate positive cash flow. We have a successful track record of acquiring innovative companies, and subsequently growing revenue, increasing our partner portfolio, and leveraging technology and customer synergies. Given our significant financial resources and talented operating team, we are well positioned to pursue acquisitions and new opportunities to expand our business."

The acquisition of Icagen brings Ligand the following:

Technology Platform. Icagen’s extensive biological capability focused on ion channels, transporters and x-ray fluorescence, along with a strong track record in novel drug discovery from screening to lead optimization. Ion channels are key components in a wide variety of biological processes that involve rapid changes in cells and have broad therapeutic applicability including cancer, metabolic disease, pain, neurological diseases, infectious diseases and others.
Roche Collaboration to develop and commercialize therapies for neurological diseases. The collaboration provides research funding, potential milestone payments of up to $274 million and tiered royalty payments should a drug be commercialized.
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) Collaboration to discover therapeutics to treat patients with cystic fibrosis caused by specific genetic mutations. The CFF collaboration allows for up to $11 million in research funding, milestone payments of up to $59 million and tiered royalties on sales, should a product be commercialized.
Proprietary Service Unit to Drive New Collaborations and Revenue, including a 32-person R&D team based in Raleigh, N.C., now known as Icagen, a Ligand Company, focused on drug discovery of ion channels and transporters. Icagen provides Ligand with an East Coast operation to efficiently serve partners and brings a portfolio of current or recent/active collaboration agreements with over 30 biopharma companies plus an ongoing business development pipeline.
Novel, Unpartnered Programs that include six preclinical-stage assets applicable to a range of therapy areas including diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, pain and other disorders.

On April 2, 2020 Calviri, Inc., a biotech startup spun out of Arizona State University Biodesign Institute, focused on ending deaths from cancer, reported the closing of $2.25 million in seed round funding (Press release, Calviri, APR 2, 2020, View Source [SID1234556111]). The funding is from five private investors including Dr. Jacque Sokolov, a Calviri Board member, and Dr. Mitzi Krockover.

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Calviri was founded based on the discovery that tumors make frequent and recurrent errors in RNA transcription and processing that create highly immunogenic frameshift peptides (FSPs). Calviri has developed a manufacturing process that displays >400,000 FSPs on microchips; this enables patients’ blood to be simply screened for anti-FSP antibodies. This process is the basis for the design of off-the-shelf vaccines for any cancer, as well as diagnostics for the early detection of any cancer. Calviri holds exclusive rights, licensed from Skysong, to the diagnostic technology developed by the Biodesign Center at ASU.

Kathryn Sykes, VP of Research and Product Development, stated, "We will use the funding to demonstrate the strengths of this unique technology. We anticipate demonstrating an accurate predictive diagnostic for response to checkpoint inhibitors and a high sensitivity test for the early detection of breast and colon cancers."

Stephen Albert Johnston, CEO and founder, announced, "This funding is a vote of confidence for our ambitious goals. It comes at a time that will allow Calviri to meet some important valuation inflection milestones for both the diagnostics and vaccines."

On April 2, 2020 Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACK) [("Merrimack" or the "Company")] reported receipt of $2.25 million in connection with the closing of a transaction in which the Company sold certain assets related to its preclinical nanoliposome programs to Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Merrimack will not receive any further contingent consideration or royalties as a result of this transaction (Press release, Merrimack, APR 2, 2020, View Source [SID1234556110]).

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Under the terms of the agreement for the transaction, Celator, in addition to paying the base purchase price of $2.25 million, reimbursed the Merrimack for certain specified expenses and assumed certain liabilities with respect to the acquired assets. Further, under the agreement, the Company assigned to Celator the previously disclosed intellectual property license agreement among the Company and Ipsen S.A pursuant to which Ipsen granted the Company licenses to certain patents, and Celator also granted the Company an exclusive license to certain specified know-how and patents related to specific nano-liposome projects which remain in the Merrimack portfolio.

Completion of this transaction is a continuation of Merrimack’s strategy of extending its cash runway into 2027 and preserving its ability to capture the potential $450 million of remaining ONIVYDE-related contingent milestone payments resulting from its 2017 asset sale to Ipsen as well as the potential $54.5 million of remaining contingent milestone payments resulting from its 2019 sale of certain programs to Elevation Oncology, Inc. (formerly known as 14ner Oncology, Inc.).

"This asset sale transaction reflects our ongoing strategic focus on both the monetization of our remaining preclinical assets and the further reduction of our operating expenses," said Gary Crocker, Chairman of Merrimack’s Board of Directors. "Ipsen recently publicly announced that ONIVYDE is in Phase 3 clinical trials in two additional indications which we believe could, if successful, support the attainment of certain milestones. The proceeds from the Celator transaction provide an additional operational buffer in the event of any potential unanticipated contingencies, and enhance our ability to focus on our top priority, which is to preserve our ability to collect milestones and to maximize returns to shareholders. As opportunities arise we will continue to look to distribute excess cash not essential to our minimal operations."

On April 2, 2020 Mateon Therapeutics Inc. (OTCQB:MATN) reported the publication of a peer-reviewed research article co-authored by Fatih Uckun MD PhD, Sanjive Qazi PhD, and Vuong Trieu, PhD in the oncology journal Cancer Reports and Reviews (Press release, Mateon Therapeutics, APR 2, 2020, View Source [SID1234556109]).

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We previously reported the preliminary findings of a Phase II study (NCT00431561) confirmed its favorable safety profile and showed that OT101 can offer early disease control to R/R high-grade glioma patients at 6 months at a rate comparable to that achieved with the standard alkylating chemotherapy drug temozolomide. We are now reporting our analysis of the long-term follow-up data on the recalcitrant/resistant anaplastic astrocytoma (R/RR AA) patient subpopulation treated in the NCT00431561 study as proof of concept for the clinical utility of the Convection Enhanced Delivery of OT-101 platform (CEDOT). Notably, OT101 administered intratumorally via the CEDOT platform exhibited clinically meaningful single-agent activity and induced durable complete response (CR), partial response (PR) in more than half of the treated R/R AA patients. The median overall survival of patients receiving the CEDOT-delivered experimental therapy 1136 (95% CI:811 – 1743) days which was significantly better than the 590 (95% CI:287 – NA) days median OS (Log Rank χ2=6.5, P-value=0.011) of the TMZ-treated patient population.

"This work demonstrates superiority of OT-101 against an approved chemotherapeutic agent against AA and emphasizes our commitment to find effective new therapies for difficult-to-treat cancers," stated Dr. Vuong Trieu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mateon Therapeutics.

OT-101 has received orphan drug designation for glioblastoma, melanoma, and pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, FDA recently granted Rare Pediatric Designation for OT-101 against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). OT-101 is also effective against coronavirus including COVID-19 and being deployed against the COVID-19 epidemic.