This week's Lab Notes has items on a cell therapy developer's $15 million equity financing, a key hire by a biopharm firm seeking to launch its first product, an expanded licensing deal and more.
Here's the roundup:
Vittoria Biotherapeutics
The Philadelphia cell therapy company raised $15 million to advance the development of its lead new drug candidate targeting T-cell lymphoma, a rare form of cancer.
The Series A funding round was led by Valley Forge Investment Corp. and included investments from Agent Capital, Tellus BioVentures, the University of Pennsylvania, BioAdvance, NYBC Ventures, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program.
"This financing brings us one step closer to validating the promise of our Senza5 platform technology and to delivering life-changing therapeutic [medicines] to patients dealing with some of the most difficult to treat diseases," said Nicholas Siciliano, CEO of Vittoria.
Senza5, Vittoria’s proprietary CAR T-cell therapy engineering and manufacturing platform, combines genetic engineering and the company's proprietary five-day cell therapy manufacturing process. The platform is based on technology exclusively licensed by Vittoria from the University of Pennsylvania.
Vittoria, founded in 2021 and based in University City, emerged from stealth mode during the summer of 2022 to announce a $10 million seed funding round.
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals
The Conshohocken biopharmaceutical company, which is about three months away from a decision on its lead new drug candidate by the Food and Drug Administration, has made a key addition to its management team.
Carole Huntsman has joined Madrigal (NASDAQ: MDGL) as the company's chief commercial officer. She will lead Madrigal's efforts to prepare for and execute the launch of resmetirom, the company's experimental treatment for the liver disease nonalcoholic steatohepatitis — also known as NASH.
The FDA is scheduled to render a decision on the company's new drug application in mid-March.
Huntsman was most recently senior vice president, head of specialty care North America and the U.S. country lead at Sanofi, where she directed a team of 2,600 across product launches in immunology, neurology, oncology, rare diseases, and rare blood disorders.
Last week, Madrigal published additional positive data from its late-stage clinical testing of resmetirom at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases liver meeting in Boston.
Century Therapeutics
The Philadelphia biotechnology company and FujiFilm Cellular Dynamics have expanded their worldwide license agreement covering the development and commercialization of cell therapies derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or IPSCs, for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Financial terms of the deal are being kept confidential. The deal expands the initial collaboration the two companies forged in 2018 for cancer immunotherapies.
Under the terms of the agreement, FujiFilm Cellular Dynamics — a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of human iPSCs and iPSC-derived cells — will be eligible to receive certain development and regulatory milestone payments from Century Therapeutics (NASDAQ: IPSC) as well as royalties related to products developed through the partnership.
Vyant Bio
The Cherry Hill biotechnology company provided its shareholders with an update regarding its wind-down activities under its liquidation and dissolution plan, which followed the sale of substantially all its assets.
Vyant Bio’s board anticipates that it will file a certificate of dissolution with the state of Delaware in late December, after which the company’s common stock will cease to trade.
Company officials it's uncertain the amount of any possible liquidation payments. They estimate that the liquidation payments to shareholders will range from $0.16 to $0.29 per share, depending on the amount it receives from the sale of its assets.
Last month, Vyant (OTC: VYNT) finalized the sale of the microBrain-associated assets of its Minnesota-based StemoniX subsidiary to AxoSim for $2.25 million, of which $1.1 million was paid when the transaction closed. The remaining $1.15 million will be based on achieving undisclosed milestones.
Vyant's StemoniX microBrain technology is used to develop live in vitro models of human brain and nerve structures that are applied to drug discovery, imaging and screening. Last year, the company sold its Hershey-based contract research organization subsidiary vivoPharm to Malvern-based Reaction Biology Corp. for $5.5 million.
Vyant estimates that it will make its first liquidation payment in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Quick Hits
Malvern-based Ocugen (NASDAQ: OCGN) said the first patient has been dosed in its phase 1/2 clinical trial for OCU410, the company's experimental gene therapy candidate being developed as a treatment for Stargardt disease, a rare genetically inherited retinal disease that often resulting in slow and progressive vision loss in children and adults.… GSK (NYSE: GSK) is teaming up with former "Queer Eye" star and interior designer Thom Filicia to launch "Mapping Myelofibrosis," a health education initiative aiming to help those impacted by the type of blood cancer. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Filicia donating bone marrow to his brother, who was diagnosed with myelofibrosis a few months prior to the transplant.
