HaemaLogiX Pty Ltd, a clinical stage biotech company developing novel immuno-oncology and immune therapies for patients with blood cancers, is pleased to both announce the close of a fully subscribed $10 million placement to sophisticated investors and welcomes Platinum Asset Management as core new institutional investor within its Platinum International Health Care Fund.
Bryce Carmine, HaemaLogiX Chairman and CEO commented: “We are pleased to have secured $10 million in new capital which will enable HaemaLogiX advance the development of our lead asset KappaMab. In clinical studies to date, KappaMab has shown strong potential as an efficacy-boosting adjunct to the standard of care across multiple lines of treatment for multiple myeloma patients. Funds raised will contribute significantly to HaemaLogiX’s efforts to address the patient need in this underserved market and expedite our commercialisation efforts.
“Both new and existing shareholders have supported the raise and I’m very pleased to welcome the world-class Platinum Asset Management as a new institutional investor.”
HaemaLogiX’s lead drug is a monoclonal antibody called KappaMab. It targets a cancer cell surface kappa myeloma antigen (KMA), which is believed to play a role in protecting the cancerous myeloma cell from the patient’s own immune response. When KappaMab specifically binds to the myeloma cell, it enables the patient’s immune system to recognise the cell as abnormal, triggering the natural response to attack and kill the myeloma cell.
Importantly the specificity of KappaMab has demonstrated excellent safety and efficacy in myeloma patients whose disease has relapsed. Due to its unique mode of action, KappaMab works in partnership with drugs that represent standard of care for treating multiple myeloma. These standard of care drugs have been shown to upregulate the KMA target on the myeloma cells and increase the patient’s own immune response, leading to a more effective synergistic drug combination treatment.
KappaMab’s potential to boost the efficacy of standard of care treatment has been validated by interim Phase IIb data. It is anticipated that final results of the Phase IIb clinical trial will be published in late 2021.
