Immune Pharmaceuticals secures up to $11m in new financing

The financing from a single family office that is an existing investor includes the sale of a $1 million convertible note and up to $10 million in future equity sales at prevailing market prices in increments of at least $1 million per month.

Immune CEO Daniel Teper said: "We appreciate the continuous commitment of our investors to support this financing of Immune, which will be dedicated to the advancement of bertilimumab clinical development. We are also implementing a strategy to unlock the value of other assets through the establishment of new, privately-funded companies which will be partially owned by Immune."

Immune continues to accrue patients in two phase 2 clinical trials for bertilimumab, a first-in-class monoclonal antibody targeting eotaxin-1: an open label 10 patient trial in the treatment of bullous pemphigoid, an orphan auto-immune dermatological condition, and a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 42 patient trial in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, a gastrointestinal inflammatory condition. In both conditions, a significant number of patients have elevated levels of eotaxin-1, which is also considered a biomarker of disease severity.

Targeting patients with elevated eotaxin-1 offers the potential to select patients who may be more likely to respond to treatment. Additionally in 2017, Immune plans to initiate a phase 2 trial in severe atopic dermatitis, a condition where eotaxin–1 plays an important role, and to explore the role of eotaxin-1 in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Immune is also moving forward with forming three private companies separate from the development of bertilimumab, focusing on Immuno-Oncology, Dermatology, and Pain & Neurology respectively.

The Immuno-Oncology subsidiary will focus on Ceplene, which recently received guidance from the FDA for a pivotal phase 3 Overall Survival study in remission maintenance for Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and novel bispecific antibodies targeting immune check points and other novel targets.

The Dermatology subsidiary will focus on the application of nanotechnology to dermatology. The lead program is a topical cyclosporine for the treatment of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. The Pain and Neurology subsidiary will focus on AmiKet for the treatment of peripheral neuropathic pain with the subsidiary's new management looking at complementary assets.