SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — ImmVira Group Company (“the Company”), a biotechnology platform dedicated to the development of oncolytic virus(“OV”) and vector type approaches to create more effective and safer therapies against cancer, announced today the signing of Series C financing.
The Company’s rapidly advancing OV programs with Best-in-class potential have drawn broad interest from renowned international and domestic institutional investors. Lead investor for Series C was Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund (“GBA Fund”), and Octagon Capital, China Merchants Capital (through Hui Kang Equity Fund), WinDigital Capital, LanTing Capital, and OrbiMed were co-investors. The Company’s existing investor GL Ventures, the venture capital arm of Hillhouse Capital, who invested in Series A Plus and Series B financings, also participated in this Series C round. O’Melveny & Myers acted as Company counsel with UBS and CICC as Financial Advisors.
The proceeds from the Transaction would be primarily used to fund international multi-center trial for MVR-T3011-IT, IND filing and swift initiation of clinical trials for two additional pipeline candidates, as well as the discovery and validation of new product candidates developed on the OvPENS platform.
Remarks from the executive management team, “We appreciate our new and existing investors for supporting what the company has achieved and trust in where it is heading. This group of new investors will bring tremendous resources to accelerate clinical and commercialization of our lead candidates while expanding the possibilities and viability of new pipelines developed on the OvPENS platform. We are grateful existing investors have also kindly supported in every way to make this Series C possible.”
“Reflecting on 2020, ImmVira made leaps and bounds in building a solid foundation to ensure our OV programs will be successful. For MVR-T3011 intratumoural program, a landmark license program was achieved with Shanghai Pharma along with a validating strategic investment. As company’s first clinical effort, the intratumoral program expanded quickly from a single center trial in China to multiple sites in China with Australia and US multiple sites activated and synced to be a truly international trial, a first for oncolytic virus globally. For our near clinical candidates such as MVR-T3011 intravenous delivery and C5252 targeting brain tumors, we continue to accelerate our timetable for IND filing and look forward to having both candidates in clinical well before the end of second quarter of 2021.”
“Our platform and corporate development also made great progress in the second half of 2020. The OvPENS platform team supported our manufacturing partner to scale and meet regulatory compliance such that production for all pre-clinical and clinical requirements ahead are secured. The OvPENS team also made several novel drug discoveries with the target to enable CAR T-cell, ADC and BiTE effective on solid tumors using an OV based vector-receptor approach. These breakthroughs will provide exciting candidate pipelines well into 2022 and beyond. For the company, the joining of highly experienced CMO and CFO would ensure our clinical and financing functions operate at the world class level. 2020 was a challenging year yet we are pleased to close the year with a new class of investors to welcome the New Year ahead.”
About ImmVira
ImmVira was founded on May 18, 2015 as a biotechnology company focused on genetically modified oncolytic viruses (“OV”) as potential cancer therapeutics. The company has developed science, technology and know-how to support ongoing research, development and commercialization of best in class oncolytic viruses on the OvPENS (OV+ Patent, Enabling, Novel & Safe) platform. OvPENS platform comprises of research, patents, gene-recombinant knowhow, manufacturing technology and commercialization analytics to develop next generation OVs that reach drug development targets including Potent, Enabling, Novel and Safe.
The company’s first clinical candidate MVR-T3011 is a novel oncolytic virus (oHSV-1) vector encoded with PD-1 Antibody and IL-12 immunomodulatory payloads for intratumoural administration. This candidate is undergoing a global multi-center phase I study in China, Australia and US. Additional candidates including OV using intravenous administration, OV for malignant brain tumors, CAR T-cell/ADC/BiTE enabling OVs and targeted OV for hematological malignancies are being developed on the OvPENS platform.
For more information, please visit: www.immviragroup.com
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