Firm is developing active immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases.
GlobeImmune obtained $17.5 million in a Series E Preferred Stock financing. The firm is developing active immunotherapy products called Tarmogens® for cancer and infectious diseases. The round was led by new investors Generali Financial Holding and BSI SA, and existing investors also participated.
GlobeImmune’s lead infectious disease program, GI-5005, is a potential treatment for chronic HCV infection. GI-5005 is currently being developed in combination with the current standard of care, pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Treatment-naive patients with genotype 1 HCV receiving GI-5005 and standard of care demonstrated a 15% absolute improvement in complete response rate at the end of 48 weeks of treatment relative to patients receiving standard of care alone.
The firm’s lead oncology program, GI-4000, targets cancers caused by a mutated Ras protein. GI-4000 is currently in a randomized, active-control, adjuvant, Phase IIb trial in resected pancreatic cancer in combination with the current standard of care, gemcitabine. Phase II studies in locally advanced pancreatic cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are planned.
Other candidates are in preclinical testing for the treatment of influenza, glioblastoma, and NSCLC. GlobeImmune is also working to discover additional anticancer agents through a partnership with Celgene inked in May 2009.
