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TG Therapeutics Announces Approximately $85 million in Equity and Debt Financings

on March 1, 2019 TG Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TGTX), a biopharmaceutical company developing medicines for patients with B-cell mediated diseases, reported approximately $85 million in equity and debt financing (Press release, TG Therapeutics, MAR 1, 2019, View Source [SID1234533859]).

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The Company priced a public offering of its common stock for gross proceeds of approximately $25.2 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by the Company. In addition, the Company granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase $3.8 million of additional shares of common stock. All of the shares in the offering are being sold by the Company. The Company anticipates using the net proceeds from the offering to fund the ongoing development of ublituximab and umbralisib, for research and development activities and for general corporate purposes. The offering is expected to close on March 5, 2019 subject to customary closing conditions.

Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. acted as the sole book-running manager for the offering. The underwriter may offer the shares from time to time for sale in one or more transactions on The NASDAQ Capital Market, in the over-the-counter market, through negotiated transactions or otherwise at market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices. On February 28, 2019, the last sale price of the shares as reported on The NASDAQ Capital Market was $6.80 per share.

In addition to the above equity financing, the Company also announced yesterday that it has secured a $60 million venture debt facility with Hercules Capital, a leader in customizing debt financing for companies in the life sciences and technology-related markets.

The shares of common stock described above are being offered by the Company pursuant to its shelf registration statement on Form S-3 previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 26, 2017 and declared effective by the SEC on June 13, 2017. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering has been filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement, when available, and accompanying prospectus relating to these securities may also be obtained by sending a request to: Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Attention: Capital Markets, 499 Park Avenue, 6th Floor New York, New York 10022; email: [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.

Rakuten Aspyrian Announces Name Change to Rakuten Medical

On March 1, 2019 Rakuten Aspyrian, a biotechnology company developing precision-targeted cancer therapies based on its proprietary Photoimmunotherapy platform, reported that it has changed its name to Rakuten Medical, Inc (Press release, Rakuten Aspyrian, MAR 1, 2019, View Source/2019/02/28/rakuten-aspyrian-announces-name-change-to-rakuten-medical/" target="_blank" title="View Source/2019/02/28/rakuten-aspyrian-announces-name-change-to-rakuten-medical/" rel="nofollow">View Source [SID1234533855]). This name more closely reflects the company’s corporate purpose of creating a global biotechnology company integrating research and development with commercial operations in order to develop therapeutics that improve cancer patient outcomes.

"We are aiming to deliver PIT platform to as many cancer patients and as early as possible worldwide. Our new name that becomes effective today, Rakuten Medical, better aligns with our goal of developing a global brand that resonates within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries," said Mickey Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten Medical. "Despite our name change, our mission of ‘Conquering cancer, For life’ will not change. We are stronger today than ever before as we continue building the organization necessary to conquer cancer by developing innovative cancer treatments."

For more information, visit View Source

AdoRx Therapeutics Announces Collaboration With Johnson & Johnson Innovation to Develop Novel Lung Cancer Therapeutics

On February 28, 2019 AdoRx Therapeutics, a UK based drug discovery company, reported that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC* and the Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson to develop novel therapeutics for the treatment of lung cancer (Press release, AdoRx Therapeutics, FEB 28, 2019, View Source;johnson-innovation-to-develop-novel-lung-cancer-therapeutics-300803519.html [SID1234554021]). Under terms of the agreement, AdoRx has granted an exclusive option to research, develop and commercialise novel antagonists within the AdoRx portfolio, and the groups will collaborate on drug discovery and preclinical development activities. Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

Commenting, Pete Finan, CEO of AdoRx, said: "We are delighted to be teaming up with Johnson & Johnson and their Lung Cancer Initiative less than two years after the creation of AdoRx. The collaboration will facilitate the progression of AdoRx’s fit-for-purpose receptor antagonists into clinical development."

AdoRx was founded in 2017 by leading healthcare investor Epidarex Capital. The company announced further investment by Epidarex Capital and Sixth Element Capital which manages the oncology focused CRT Pioneer Fund (CPF) in June 2018.

*Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc is the legal entity to the agreement.

BGI Selected as sequencing partner for development of Flow Pharma Personalized Cancer Vaccines

On February 28, 2019 Flow Pharma Inc., a San Francisco Bay Area biotechnology company focused on personalized vaccine development, reported that it has selected BGI Americas Inc. to provide the sequencing services required for all FlowVax neoantigen-based personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines under development by Flow Pharma (Press release, Flow Pharma, FEB 28, 2019, View Source [SID1234554003]).

The first two Flow Pharma products under development are FlowVax HPV for the treatment of cervical cancer and FlowVax BreastCA for the treatment of breast cancer. FlowVax Breast CA will be a personalized therapeutic vaccine requiring patient-specific gene sequencing.

"The exciting new area of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines requires rapid, accurate genomic and transcriptomic sequencing. BGI Americas is unique in providing next generation sequencing services using its own unique DNBseq sequencing technology based on combinatorial probe-anchor synthesis (cPAS), linear isothermal rolling-circle replication and DNA nanoball (DNB) technology," said Victor Zhang, Ph.D., CEO of BGI Americas. "BGI has a strong track record supporting the therapeutic and biomarker development of top biopharma and biotech companies. Our DNBseq technology has been validated by leading academic centers and industry users and will deliver strong value in our collaboration with Flow Pharma."

"In order to make a personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine, you have to know the genomic information of the patient’s tumor as well as that of the patient. Speed and accuracy are both critical. Once we have these gene sequences, we can use AI-augmented bioinformatics tools to quickly identify tumor targets for T-cell attack and then rapidly load these targets into a FlowVax vaccine customized for that particular patient." Said Lu Wang, Ph.D., Flow Pharma bioinformatics team leader

"We have spent a decade developing the FlowVax vaccine platform. FlowVax is optimized to simultaneously deliver multiple unmodified peptide targets for killer T-cell attack. Each of the chemical components used in the FlowVax platform are currently part of an FDA approved vaccine or pharmaceutical, simplifying our regulatory pathway," said Charles Herst, Ph.D., Flow Pharma chief science officer. "Personalized FlowVax therapeutic vaccines can be manufactured quickly and efficiently, keeping the cost down and getting the therapy in the hands of treating physicians soon after the diagnosis is made, for maximum efficacy."

"We believe that BGI’s DNBseq NGS platform is the best in class for the rigorous requirements of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine development. The fact that BGI Americas provides professional and competitive genomic sequencing services along with experience and knowledge in supporting drug development, allows us to become a full-stack company in the space without the time and expense required to bring gene sequencing technology in-house," said Reid Rubsamen, M.D., CEO of Flow Pharma.

Jounce Therapeutics to Announce Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Financial Results and Host Conference Call on Wednesday, March 6, 2019

On February 28, 2019 Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNCE), a clinical-stage company focused on the discovery and development of novel cancer immunotherapies and predictive biomarkers, reported that it will report fourth quarter and full year 2018 financial results and provide a corporate update before market open on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 (Press release, Jounce Therapeutics, FEB 28, 2019, View Source [SID1234535389]). Jounce Therapeutics’ management team will host a live conference call and webcast at 8:00 a.m. ET.

Conference Call and Webcast
To access the conference call, please dial (866) 916-3380 (domestic) or (210) 874-7772 (international) and refer to conference ID 8678456. The live webcast can be accessed under "Events & Presentations" in the Investors and Media section of the company’s website at www.jouncetx.com. The webcast will be archived and made available for replay on the company’s website approximately two hours after the call and will be available for 30 days thereafter.