24 Jun BioEclipse Therapeutics™ Announces Appointment of New Directors and Series A-1 Financing
$9.3 million raised to date; latest funding to be used to advance lead immunotherapy, CRX100, into Phase 1b/2a clinical trials in therapy-refractory solid tumors
BioEclipse appoints three new board members
South San Francisco, CA – June 24, 2019 – BioEclipse Therapeutics™ (BioEclipse), a private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to developing first-in-class, curative immuno-oncology therapeutics, today announced that it has raised $7.7 million in its Series A-1 financing round, which was led by Revelis Capital Group, LLC and managed by VENTURE.co Brokerage Services, LLC, with participation from Tsingyuan Ventures, DEFTA Partners, TSVC (TEEC Angel Fund) and Plum Alley. BioEclipse has now raised a total of $9.3 million to date.
BioEclipse plans to use proceeds from the Series A-1 financing to initiate human trials of CRX- 100, BioEclipse’s patented, first-in-class, intravenous, tumor targeted combination immunotherapy. BioEclipse expects to file an Investigational New Drug application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of 2019 and plans to initiate a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial of CRX100 in therapy-refractory solid tumors during the first quarter of 2020. The company intends to enroll patients with therapy refractory solid tumors, including ovarian cancer, in the first study.
The company also announced the addition of three new board members: Mark Frohlich, MD, former Executive Vice President at Juno Therapeutics; Elona Baum, Managing Director of DEFTA Partners; and Oliver Hopkinson, Co-Founder and Manager of Revelis Capital Group.
“The Series A-1 financing is a watershed moment for BioEclipse,” said Pamela Contag, Ph.D., founder and CEO of BioEclipse. “The company is now in prime position to advance a potentially groundbreaking immunotherapy – CRX100 – that offers the potential to treat a broad range of solid and liquid tumors through a synergistic, multi-targeted mechanism of action that harnesses activated immune cells in combination with a tumor killing oncolytic virus. We believe our patented technology is unlike anything in development, and we look forward to utilizing the funds from the Series A-1 financing to initiate the first clinical trial of CRX100.”
CRX100 is designed to activate the patients’ natural immune cells and pair those cells with a tumor-killing agent, thus eradicating cancer cells and creating an environment that protects the patient from tumor growth recurrence. This first-in-class immunotherapy could provide a potentially curative therapy to patients with a broad range of solid and liquid tumors, including hard to treat cancers and some pediatric cancers. Preclinical studies have demonstrated that the BioEclipse proprietary drug product can deliver approximately a thousand-fold increase in cytotoxicity versus preclinical studies of the two drug substance components, which are both immunotherapies that have been tested in humans, without eliciting serious side effects.
Dr. Contag continued: “We appreciate the support of Revelis Capital Group, which led the Series A-1 round and VENTURE.co Brokerage Services, which managed the financing. Their shared vision for BioEclipse was instrumental in securing the funding and will be critical in the ongoing success of the company.”
New Board Members Bring Deep Drug Industry Experience
BioEclipse has continued to strengthen its board of directors with the addition of Dr. Frohlich, Ms. Baum and Mr. Hopkinson. “I am honored to welcome Mark, Elona and Oliver to our board,” said Dr. Contag. “Each brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our board and understands the importance of the work we do. Our entire board looks forward to working with them.”
Mark Frohlich, MD, is an experienced biotechnology executive and medical oncologist with expertise in drug development of cell & gene therapies, oncology, and immunology. He is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board in Oncology for Cerenis Therapeutics. Dr. Frohlich has been involved in the development of cellular immunotherapies for cancer for 20 years. He was most recently Executive VP of Portfolio Strategy at Juno Therapeutics prior to its acquisition by Celgene. He previously served as Executive VP of R&D and Chief Medical Officer of Dendreon Corporation, where he led the clinical team responsible for the approval of the first cellular immunotherapy in the US and Europe (Provenge®). Dr. Frohlich is a graduate of Yale College with a BS in Economics and Electrical Engineering summa cum laude, and Harvard Medical School with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He was Chief Medical Resident and completed an internal medicine residency and subsequently completed the oncology fellowship program, both at UCSF.
Elona Baum, JD, is currently a Managing Director of DEFTA Partners and heads the investment function for its healthcare technologies fund. Ms. Baum’s career spans more than 20 years in drug development, initially at Genentech and then at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). She has held leadership roles in business development, legal and regulatory. In this capacity she oversaw $1 billion of investment in regenerative medicine research and clinical programs, the creation of a $40M induced pluripotent stem cell bank and a re-vamping of intellectual property regulations governing CIRM grants. At Genentech Ms. Baum managed legal matters relating to clinical trials of Raptiva and the company’s Spanish subsidiary, including serving as Board Secretary for Genentech Espana. Ms. Baum currently serves as a director on the board of Endogena Therapeutics Inc. and Orig3n, Inc . She is an attorney, served as an extern for Justice Arguelles of the California Supreme Court, graduated Magnum Cum Laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law and Cum Laude from the University of California, Los Angeles with a BA in Economics.
Oliver Hopkinson is Co-Founder and Manager of Revelis Capital Group, which focuses on elite early stage direct venture investments. He has a BS in Economics from Duke University and has studied at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and studied at NYU Florence.
Investors can obtain further information and risk disclosure (available exclusively to verified accredited investors under the 506(c) exemption) by contacting the Managing Director of Investment Banking at VENTURE.co, Joseph Ventresca, Joe@Venture.co, +1 (917) 232- 4112.
About BioEclipse Therapeutics™
BioEclipse Therapeutics is an emerging, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to delivering first-in-class, curative immuno-oncology therapeutics to patients with cancer. Our focus is on currently untreatable cancers where our unique multi-mechanistic combination approach could address needs of patients with cancers that most think are not treatable. BioEclipse Therapeutics is preparing to initiate Phase 1b/2a clinical trials with, CRX100, a patented, first in class, intravenously delivered, targeted immunotherapy against solid tumors. CRX100, is being developed to deliver potentially curative treatment to patients over a broad range of tumor types, including some rare pediatric cancers. BioEclipse Therapeutics is a resident company of Johnson & Johnson Innovation. JLABS, a premier life science incubator program. For more information, visit www.bioeclipse.com.
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