On January 26, 2021 Precigen, Inc. (Nasdaq: PGEN) reported the closing of its previously announced underwritten public offering of common stock (Press release, Precigen, JAN 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234574315]). Precigen sold 17,250,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $7.50 per share, including the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase an additional 2,250,000 shares of common stock. Gross proceeds to Precigen from the offering were approximately $129.4 million before deducting the underwriting discount and other offering expenses payable by Precigen.

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Wells Fargo Securities and Stifel acted as joint book-running managers for the offering. JMP Securities acted as lead manager and H.C. Wainwright & Co. acted as co-manager for the offering.

The public offering was made pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that was previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and became effective on July 2, 2020. A final prospectus supplement relating to and describing the terms of the offering has been filed with the SEC and is available on the website of the SEC at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus relating to the offering may also be obtained from Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 500 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001, by telephone at (800) 326-5897, or by email at [email protected]; or Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Attention: Syndicate, One Montgomery Street, Suite 3700, San Francisco, California 94104, by telephone at (415) 364-2720, or by email at [email protected].

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

On January 26, 2021 Personalis, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSNL), a leader in advanced genomics for population sequencing and cancer, reported the pricing of its previously announced underwritten public offering of 3,950,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38.00 per share (Press release, Personalis, JAN 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234574312]). Gross proceeds to Personalis from the offering are expected to be $150.1 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

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In addition, the underwriters have been granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 592,500 shares of common stock from Personalis on the same terms and conditions.

Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Citigroup and Cowen are acting as joint book-running managers. BTIG is acting as co-manager.

A shelf registration statement relating to the shares being sold in this offering was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on December 30, 2020, and was declared effective on January 8, 2021. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering was filed with the SEC and are available for free on the SEC’s website located at View Source When available, electronic copies of the final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014; BofA Securities, Attention: Prospectus Department, NC1‐004‐03‐43, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte, NC 28255‐0001, or by emailing [email protected]; Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, or by telephone at 1-800-831-9146; or Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, Attention: Prospectus Department, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, telephone: 1-833-297-2926.

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 January 26, 2021 Personalis, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSNL), a leader in advanced genomics for population sequencing and cancer, reported that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of $150.0 million of its common stock (Press release, Personalis, JAN 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234574311]). In addition, Personalis expects to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $22.5 million of common stock on the same terms and conditions.

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The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed or as to the actual size or terms of the offering.

Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Citigroup and Cowen are acting as joint book-running managers. BTIG is acting as co-manager.

A shelf registration statement relating to the shares being sold in this offering was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on December 30, 2020, and was declared effective on January 8, 2021. The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus. A preliminary 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 located at View Source When available, electronic copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the proposed public offering may be obtained from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014; BofA Securities, Attention: Prospectus Department, NC1‐004‐03‐43, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte, NC 28255‐0001, or by emailing [email protected]; Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, or by telephone at 1-800-831-9146; or Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, Attention: Prospectus Department, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, telephone: 1-833-297-2926.

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 January 26, 2021 Kiromic BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: KRBP), an immuno-oncology target discovery and gene-editing company, with a proprietary artificial intelligence neural network platform (Diamond AI) to develop novel oncology therapeutics, reported the completion of the chPD1 licensing agreement with Longwood University (Press release, Kiromic, JAN 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234574310]).

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PD-1 has always been a challenge for CAR-T development.
PD-1 is the brakes of the immune system, inhibiting immune cells from killing tumor cells. Traditional PD-1 inhibitors block the PD-1 receptor, "removing the brakes" of T-cell activity.
Kiromic’s chPD1 not only "removes the brakes" but also engages the PD-1 receptor to "accelerate" T-cell activity.
Upon interaction with the PD-1 ligand, the chPD1 receptor activates CD3 zeta (the main activating intracellular domain for T cells), and Dap10 (costimulatory domain). The activation of these two intracellular domains induces T cell activation, cytokine secretion, and tumor cell lysis.
"Longwood University is proud to have completed this chPD1 licensing agreement with Kiromic. We believe that Kiromic has a strong Allogenic Off-The-Shelf CAR-T program which will be even stronger with chPD1. The role that chPD1 plays in the modulation of the tumor micro-environment (TME) can never be underestimated when treating solid tumors," says Dr. Amorette Barber, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the Office of Student Research at Longwood University.

"The completion of the licensing agreement for chPD1 marks a major milestone for Kiromic CAR-T development. With chPD1, we believe our chimeric PD1 CAR-T will be able to overcome the challenging tumor micro-environment (TME) which has plagued other CAR-T programs," says Dr. Maurizio Chiriva-Internati, PhD, CEO of Kiromic BioPharma.

"We believe that the licensing agreement of chPD1 from Longwood will make Kiromic the only CAR-T development program with a built-in capability to meet other CAR-T programs head-on who do not have a bundled chPD1 CAR-T. We believe that the licensing agreement will place Kiromic in a solid position to begin first in-human in solid tumors," says Mr. Gianluca Rotino, Chief of Strategy and Innovation of Kiromic BioPharma.

On January 26, 2021 Qurient Co. Ltd. (KRX: 115180), a clinical-stage biotech company based in Korea, reported that the first patient was dosed in the Q702 phase 1 study being conducted in the U.S. Q702 is an orally available immuno-oncology small molecule targeting the Axl, Mer, and CSF1 receptor tyrosine kinases (Press release, Qurient Therapeutics, JAN 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234574309]).

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Qurient licensed Q702 from the Max Planck Innovation GmbH in Germany. The initial Q702 basic science research and non-clinical program was conducted by the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and Lead Discovery Center in Germany.

Q702 is a first-in-class Axl/Mer/CSF1R triple inhibitor demonstrating significant in vivo activity as a monotherapy as well as in combination with an anti-PD-1 antibody. Q702 not only modulates innate immune components such as myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and tumor associated macrophages (TAM) in the tumor micro-environment (TME) but also increases MHC I expression in tumor cells.

The Q702 phase 1 study is currently being conducted at three experienced investigative sites in the U.S., and approximately 80 patients with relapsed/refractory advanced solid tumors are expected to be enrolled. The primary objectives of this phase 1 study are to determine (i) the maximum tolerated dose, (ii) the safety profile of Q702, and (iii) the recommended phase 2 dose of Q702.

"Among the three anticancer investigative agents licensed from the Max Planck Innovation, Q702 is the first clinical-stage oncology asset in our oncology pipeline," said Kiyean Nam, Ph.D., CEO of Qurient. "Qurient is an oncology-focused specialty biotechnology company with three oncology assets in the pipeline at various stages of development, and we will continue to expand our oncology pipeline through collaboration with Max Planck Institute and Lead Discovery Center along with other business development opportunities."