Australian biotech Immutep has secured $60 million Australian dollars through a “two-tranche institutional placement” as it eyes a deeper push into the clinic and looks to raise a further AU$5 million via a share purchase plan.
The biotech is working on several cancer and autoimmune assets, including eftilagimod alpha (aka efti or, previously, IMP321), with its focus squarely on the hot new platform known as LAG-3, which has been making particular waves in oncology.
Though PD-1 drugs like Bristol Myers Squibb's Opdivo, Merck’s Keytruda and Roche’s Tecentriq have transformed the treatment of melanoma and other cancers, they don’t work for everyone—that’s why so many clinical trials are testing combinations to see which drugs might boost their efficacy.
The hope is that adding drugs that hit LAG-3 to checkpoint inhibitors could give doctors another option to get the PD-1 blocker to work in more people.
The LAG-3 protein is an immune checkpoint receptor found on the surface of T cells. In cancer, LAG-3 expression is linked to T-cell exhaustion, which helps tumors resist PD-1 blockade. Blocking LAG-3 as well as PD-1 could reinvigorate tired T cells, allow them to regain their cell-killing function and attack cancer.
Immutep has deep roots with this target and with partner GlaxoSmithKline, as the two have an R&D pact stretching all the way back to late 2010. That deal centered on IMP731, which works by depleting LAG-3-positive cells.
At the time, the work was very early stage, and that was reflected in the financials: Immutep nabbed an upfront payment with milestones of up to £64 million ($100 million) as well as royalties if it got approved.
But six months back, GSK culled a phase 2 of the anti-LAG-3 cell depleting monoclonal antibody, which is now known as GSK2831781 (and is a tweak of Immutep’s original IMP731 antibody), specifically in patients with active ulcerative colitis.
Immutep however is still pushing on in cancer on its own, and will use the modest new cash (PDF) amount to help kick-start a series of new trials across a range of solid tumors.