Geneos Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: INO), has received a Series A2 financing of $17 million. Flerie Invest was in charge of the funding. Investors who took part in the financing include INOVIO Pharmaceuticals Inc, Global Bio Fund, Korea Investment Partners, and Santé Ventures. Because of the funding, Geneos Therapeutics added Dr. Ted Fjällman, a Flerie Invest Partners, to its board.
Geneos adds Ted Fjällman to the board
Dr. Fjällman states that the company has demonstrated the efficacy of its personalized immunotherapy in treating patients with liver cancer. Moreover, the therapy stands out from other drugs that treat the same disease. For this reason, Flerie is excited to partner with Geneos Therapeutics to advance its technology.
Gene’s Therapeutics has explained that it will use proceeds from the financing to further the Phase 1b/2a study of GNOS-PVO2. This drug has the potential of becoming a cancer vaccine for people with an advanced form of liver cancer called HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma).
GNOS-PVO2 is a personalized vaccine that the company creates based on the patient’s specific limitations. It develops after it sequences the patient’s tumor
The company wants more patients in the study
During the trial, the company combined the drug with pembrolizumab and INO-9012. Currently, the patients in the study are 24. The company intends to increase this to 36. Geneos Therapeutics will use the remaining fund to venture into other indications for the therapy and expand company operations.
According to Geneos Therapeutics’ CEO and founder, Dr. Niranjan Y. Sardesai, the company is glad to have Flerie as an investor and Dr. Fjällman on its board. Geneos Therapeutics intends to leverage Flerie’s extensive network and expertise as it tries to access more patients for its therapy in Europe.
Dr. Sardesai adds that the financing will allow the company to take advantage of the flexibility offered by its GT-EPIC platform. It will also enable the company to leverage the platform’s initial success in treating liver cancer.
After the previous trial, the company had announced that the tumor reduced significantly in over 50% of the trial participants. The company also noted three partial RECIST 1.1 responses after treating the first 12 participants. It states that its other 12 patients are exhibiting a similar response.
