Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the Washington Business Journal. It appears here in an abbreviated format. See the original post here.
Immunomic Therapeutics Inc. has secured $61.3 million in fresh financing.
Korean investment group HLB led the round, after previously investing $10 million in February. The raise brings HLB’s holdings in ITI to 47.6% of common stock, with the option to invest more in the coming months, Immunomic said Thursday.
The Rockville vaccine company plans to use the capital to advance its therapy for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, now heading into a phase 2 clinical trial. The new funding will also enable the business to advance its pipeline, and expand its team and infrastructure as it moves toward a potential IPO.
Immunomic and HLB are also moving forward with plans to open a brain cancer research and treatment center in Seoul, South Korea. As part of the round, five HLB members will join ITI’s board of directors.
“With HLB’s support, we are well-positioned to accelerate our efforts in immuno-oncology, in particular glioblastoma multiforme, and rapidly advance other key candidates in our pipeline, including our most recent initiative into infectious diseases with development of our vaccine candidate for Covid-19,” said founder and CEO Bill Hearl in a statement.
ITI is working with Providence, Rhode Island pharmaceutical company EpiVax and Golden, Colorado medical device firm PharmaJet to build a Covid-19 vaccine, and keeping its eye out for grant money to help accelerate its work. That work puts Immunomic on a seemingly ever-growing list of local players developing vaccines, therapies, tests and tools to stem the tide of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 70 are now under development across the industry.
The close comes just days after Bethesda health tech startup Aledade raised $64 million in Series C financing, both at a time when fundraising is particularly difficult.
