On December 24, 2020 Genprex, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNPX) ("Genprex" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on developing life-changing therapies for patients with cancer and diabetes, reported the closing of its previously announced registered direct offering of 3,116,884 shares of its common stock with a single healthcare-dedicated institutional investor (Press release, Genprex, DEC 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234573250]). The offering was priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules at a price of $3.85 per share for gross proceeds to the Company of $12 million, before deducting commissions and estimated offering expenses. There were no warrants issued in the offering.

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"We believe that the closing of this transaction with a single, healthcare dedicated institutional investor is further evidence that the potential of our gene therapies for cancer and diabetes is gaining recognition within the community of sophisticated healthcare investors. The proceeds will provide additional resources to conduct our Acclaim-1 and Acclaim-2 clinical trials, combining our gene therapy, REQORSA, with Tagrisso (by Astra Zeneca) and Keytruda (by Merck & Co.), respectively, for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, as well as continue the pursuit of our pre-clinical programs in cancer and diabetes, and to potentially acquire additional technologies for our pipeline," said Rodney Varner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Genprex.

A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners acted as sole placement agent for the offering.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

The securities were offered pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-239134) previously filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").

A prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering have been filed with the SEC and are available for free on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Electronic copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners, 590 Madison Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10022, or by telephone at (212) 624-2060, or by email at [email protected].

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

On December 23, 2020 Cothera Bioscience, the parent company of Percans Oncology, reported that completed a series-B financing of nearly 30 million dollars (Press release, Cothera Bioscience, DEC 23, 2020, View Source [SID1234618853]). Led by Tsingsong Capital, this round of financing involves several domestic and foreign funds companies, such as CMB International, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, New World Investment, Langsheng Investment, Kunlun Fund, and Harbinger Venture. Old shareholders Legend Capital and Legend Star also participated in this investment as before. The funds raised will mainly be used to accelerate the global clinical development of the company’s multiple tumor-targeted innovative drugs.

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Founded by the core members of the founding team of the formerly well-known CRO CrownBio, Cothera Bioscience is an innovation-driven cancer drug company, focusing on the research and development of noveltumor-targeted drugs. By combining conditional reprogramming primary tumor cell culture technology and high-content drug screening system, the i-CR technology platform independently developed by Percans Oncology proliferate the primary tumor cells in vitro in a high-efficiency and undifferentiated way and can preserve the heterogeneity of the patient’s tumor.. The platform also uses patient primary tumor cells to screen efficient drug in vitro with a high-content drug screening system, making it more suitable for individualized drug screening and new drug development for clinical patients. Through cooperation with top domestic oncology medical centers to carry out a number of prospective comparative clinical trials, Cothera Bioscience has preliminarily proved that the i-CR system can effectively predict the actual clinical response of drugs, and it is expected to greatly improve the efficiency and clinical success rate of new anti-tumor drug development.

Taking advantage of the high correlation between the i-CR technology platform and clinical drug response, Cothera Bioscience has developed a series of new anti-cancer drugs in the fields of synthetic lethality and immunotherapy. And a number of international and domestic patents have been applied for the results of early research and development.

PC-002, the core product of Cothera Bioscience, is a first-in-class small molecule drug for MYC gene mutation tumors. MYC protein is highly expressed in more than 50% of tumors and is one of the most important "undruggable" tumor targets. PC-002 targets MYC protein degradation through a unique MOA and selectively induces MYC-dependent tumor cell to undergo apoptosis. PC-002 is about to undergo a Phase 2 clinical trial in the United States, and is expected to be quickly approved with the results of the Phase 2 trial as a blockbuster product for pan-cancer. The company’s another product, CTB-02, aiming at pan-KRAS variant bowel cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, is expected to enter Phase 1 clinical trials in Australia in 2021.

Dr. Wu Yue, co-founder and CEO of Cothera Bioscience, said: "Thank all investors for your support to the company. We will work together to explore new areas of new anti-tumor drug development and discover new values. The achievements of Cothera Bioscience come from the courage and strength to persist in science and innovation, and do what others can’t do. We will continue to base ourselves on the development of the world’s first-in-class drugs, give full play to the barriers and expertise of translational medicine that the company has accumulated over the years, fully understand the development of new drugs based on the solid drug mechanism research and tumor biology cognition to greatly increase its success rate, exploit the global market with innovative products, and strive to solve the unmet medical needs of cancer patients."

Dr. Zhang Song, a partner of Tsingsong Capital, said: "We are optimistic about the rich drug development experience and profound understanding about translational tumor medicine of the original founding team of Crown Bioscience International headed by Dr. Wu Yue, and firmly support the Cothera team’s exploration and drug development of multiple "undruggable" targets based on a unique drug screening system. Tsingsong Capital hopes to cooperate with the team for a long time from now on to help the company develop the first-in-class tumor-targeted drugs on a global scale in the context of intensified competition in the innovative drug market, and looks forward to working with the company to bring new breakthroughs in tumor treatment."

Zhang Xiao, Managing Director of China eCapital, said: "Cothera Bioscience has a world-class translational medicine team. Based on its unique i-CR drug screening platform, Cothera Bioscience has been focusing on drug development for undruggable targets for many years, and has made important progress in the research and development of new drugs for targets such as Myc and kras. We are honored to be able to help Cothera Bioscience complete this round of financing. And we are looking forward to more clinical progress of the company in the future, which will benefit more patients."

On December 23, 2020 NETRIS Pharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next generation molecules targeting cancer, reported the closing of a €16.1m Series A financing and the reinforcement of its Board of Directors (Press release, Netris Pharma, DEC 23, 2020, View Source [SID1234611184]). The round was subscribed by historical investors converting their outstanding loans, and joined by New Investors collectively investing €7.5m.

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Patrick Mehlen, NETRIS Pharma Founder and CEO, commented "NETRIS Pharma is proud to have achieved major milestones in these highly turbulent times and thank BPDG for its active role in this fundraising process. Further to the signature of a collaboration Agreement with MSD for the coming Phase 1B/2 trial in combination with Pembrolizumab,such funding creates opportunities to accelerate the clinical development plan of NETRIS Pharma in other indications of interest."

Banque Profil de Gestion (BPDG) acted as the sole advisor for the fundraising process led by Gianpaolo Chiriano, Managing Director and Head of Healthcare & Life Sciences at BPDG, who added: "we are glad to have contributed to the achievement of this milestone for NETRIS Pharma with the hope to impact lives of cancer patients."

Netris Pharma was founded as a spin-off of Centre Léon Bérard to develop a complete novel approach in oncology based on the biology of dependence receptors. The company, driven by scientific excellence and strong clinical insights, successfully develop NP137 targeting Netrin-1, which exhibited encouraging signs of clinical activity in its Phase 1A trial and extensions.

Netris Pharma will primarily use the proceeds of the Series A to conduct the planned Phase1B /2 clinical trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of NP137 in combination with KEYTRUDA in patients with advanced/metastatic uterine tumors and for general corporate purposes.

On December 23, 2020 UC San Francisco (UCSF) and BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBIO) reported a partnership to drive the advancement of academic innovations in genetically driven diseases into potential therapeutics for patients (Press release, BridgeBio, DEC 23, 2020, View Source [SID1234576218]).

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"The BridgeBio team is developing close relationships with our investigators at UCSF with the mission of bringing potential therapies into the clinic quickly, where they have the opportunity to help patients in need," said Barry Selick, Ph.D., UCSF vice chancellor for business development, innovation and partnerships and director of the Office of Innovation Ventures. "We are excited about this partnership and the opportunities it may create for the development of new medicines."

"UCSF is a global leader in scientific innovation and genetic disease research, and we are proud to establish a formal, long-term relationship with the university as we work to help patients as quickly and safely as possible," said BridgeBio CEO and founder Neil Kumar, Ph.D.

Following a six-month pilot collaboration, the new agreement establishes a three-year alliance with BridgeBio with the goal of identifying early translational research to accelerate into clinical development and potential commercialization. The partnership is designed to foster close collaboration between the two entities that build on their respective strengths, and it will initially be structured to enable Sponsored Research Agreements for certain labs working between UCSF Innovation Ventures and BridgeBio. These collaborations may lead to the creation of BridgeBio affiliate companies to support clinical development.

"Collaborative relationships between academia–which has a wealth of scientific knowledge in a range of overlooked diseases–and industry, with its robust development infrastructure, are truly valuable and can help leapfrog traditional R&D timelines," said Frank McCormick, Ph.D., F.R.S., a professor in the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF and co-founder and chairman of oncology at BridgeBio. "I hope this partnership will allow people living with genetically driven disorders to access therapeutic options much more quickly and effectively."

On December 23, 2020 Vincera Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: VINC), a biopharmaceutical company aspiring to address the unmet medical needs of patients with cancer through paradigm-shifting therapeutics, reported the completion of its business combination with LifeSci Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LSAC; LSACU; LSACW; or "LSAC"), a blank check company targeting the biopharma, medical technology, digital health and healthcare services sectors (Press release, Vincerx Pharma, DEC 23, 2020, View Source [SID1234575174]). Vincera Pharma, Inc., the resulting combined company, will commence trading shares of its common stock under the ticker symbol "VINC" on December 24, 2020 on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Proceeds from this transaction net of transaction expenses totaled approximately $62 million. The stockholders of LSAC approved the transaction on December 22, 2020. The transaction was previously approved by Vincera Pharma stockholders. Vincera Pharma’s management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Hamdy M.D., will continue to lead the combined company.

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Dr. Hamdy commented, "Today marks an important milestone for Vincera Pharma as we become a publicly listed biopharmaceutical company poised to execute on our goal of developing and commercializing transformative oncology therapeutics. The proceeds from this transaction are expected to enable the rapid clinical advancement of our differentiated, highly selective PTEFb inhibitor and in parallel, the development of our next-generation bioconjugation platform. I would like to thank the entire Vincera Pharma team, our partners at LSAC, our stockholders, and our advisors for their efforts in making this transaction a success and look forward to a milestone-rich 2021 and 2022, which we expect will include the initiation of our clinical programs and early data readouts."

"We believe Vincera Pharma’s seasoned, cohesive management team and compelling pipeline of oncology assets make the company an ideal partner for LSAC," said Andrew I. McDonald, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of LSAC and Founding Partner of LifeSci Partners. "We look forward to continuing to work with the Vincera Pharma team to advance their programs and achieve clinical and regulatory success."

Summary of Transaction

On September 25, 2020, Vincera Pharma, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, entered into a definitive business combination agreement with LifeSci Acquisition Corp., a blank check company targeting the biopharma, medical technology, digital health and healthcare services sectors, that was created for the purpose of entering into a business combination with a selected company and bringing the combined entity to the Nasdaq Capital Market.

As a result of the business combination, Vincera Pharma received proceeds net of transaction expenses of approximately $62 million from LSAC’s trust account.

The description of the business combination contained herein is only a summary and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). A more detailed description of the terms of the transaction has been provided in a definitive proxy statement on Schedule 14A filed with the SEC by LSAC.

Advisors

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP serves as counsel to Vincera Pharma, Inc.

Conference Call

The company will host a conference call and webcast to discuss the transaction and business updates on Tuesday, January 5, 2021 at 8:30 AM ET.