German biotech immatics biotechnologies GmbH has raised €54 million ($71 million) from new and existing investors to support a pivotal Phase III clinical trial in renal cell carcinoma for its lead product, the therapeutic cancer vaccine IMA901, scheduled to start later this year.

It is one of the largest biotech fundraisings in Europe this year. Fellow German biotech AiCuris GmbH raised €75 million in April, and the U.K.' s Archimedes Pharma raised £65 million ($101 million) in March. Another German biotech, CureVac GmbH, which has an interest in therapeutic vaccines and also several of the same investors as immatics, raised €27.6 million in May.

Interest in therapeutic cancer vaccines has been renewed following the U.S. approval of Dendreon Corp's product, Provenge, in April of this year Also see "Dendreon Set To Ship Provenge Within A Week" - Pink Sheet, 29 April, 2010.).

But immatics' CEO Paul Higham pointed out that plans for the fundraising pre-dated Provenge's approval and said the approval was not a deciding factor for immatics' investors.

"By the time Dendreon had approval, the new investors had already just about made up their minds about investing," he said in an interview. "Having said that, the Provenge approval hasn't done us any harm in terms of interest from the investment community and Big Pharma companies."

One of the aims of the fundraising was to finance the company at least through the completion of the IMA901 Phase III study in 2013, Highham explained, which is why a relatively large amount was needed. At the end of Phase III, he expects either that IMA901 will be licensed out to a major pharmaceutical company or that immatics to be bought out.

Higham noted that he had talked to U.S. investors before last April, but there appeared to be some reluctance to commit relatively large sums to an investment in Europe at that time as well as some skepticism about investing in therapeutic cancer vaccines.

Approximately half of the new funds come from dievini Hopp Biotech holding, Wellington Partners and other existing investors, while new investors provided the remainder. Dievini Hopp BioTech holding remains immatics' largest shareholder following the funding.

The new investors are public venture capital funds advised by MIG Verwaltungs AG, a Germany-based investment company, and AT Impf GmbH, which is owned by Drs. Andreas and Thomas Strungmann. The Strungmanns co-founded the German generics company Hexal before selling it to Novartis five years ago.

MIG's Matthias Kromayer, who will join the immatics board upon completion of the round, conceded that there are not many financings that fund companies "through to the final destination". But this was considered necessary for immatics both because of the scientific complexity of the Phase III program and use of overall survival as the endpoint, which will extend the duration of the trial until 2013, he explained. In Phase II, '901showed initial evidence of improving survival.

While the amount of the funding seems large, Kromayer added, it probably is in line with the amount spent by Big Pharma on pivotal clinical studies. If additional financing is needed, he said, immatics has other pipeline products that could be licensed out, as well as platform technology that could be applied to other diseases.

Primary Tumor Antigens

The key to immatics' XPRESIDENT platform technology is the identification of peptides that are over-expressed on the surface of primary tumors, Higham explained. The company checks whether these peptides stimulate a strong immune response in patients, using its own in-house assays.

Next, the peptides are chemically synthesized and formulations designed so that all the peptides are stable and can be injected. Immatics intends for its peptides to be administered by intradermal injection, three times in the first week and then once a week for several weeks.

The fast and reliable identification of tumor-associated peptides (TUMAPS) from real tumors, not cell lines, and sometimes in very small, fentamolar amounts, is key to differentiating immatics' technology from that of other companies, Higham said. Unlike Dendreon's process, for example, immatics' technology does not require the isolation and culture of cells from individual patients.

Immatics has a second potential therapeutic cancer vaccine, IMA910, in a Phase II study in 90 patients with advanced colorectal cancer, while a third clinical project, IMA950, is being prepared for two Phase I studies in glioblastoma patients.

- John Davis (j.davis@elsevier.com)

Immatics Raises €54 Million Series C To Fund Pivotal Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine Trial

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