Immunicom raises $11M for cancer treatment device

July 3, 2019 By Nancy Crotti Leave a Comment

Biotech company Immunicom, which has developed a non-pharmaceutical, late-stage cancer treatment, has raised $11 million in a Series B investment round.

Several private equity family offices participated in the round, increasing Immunicom’s overall capital raised to $20 million. The San Diego-based company won FDA breakthrough device designation in 2018 for its Immunopheresis therapy, which is designed to selectively remove immune inhibitors from a patient’s bloodstream, potentially enabling their natural immune system to more effectively attack cancer tumors.

“Proceeds from this financing will help fund the 170-patient, randomized, multi-center, triple-negative breast cancer clinical trial we began May 31, while also fueling continued expansion of Immunicom’s global strategic partnerships,” said Immunicom CEO Amir Jafri in a news release. “We are making great strides towards our vision of introducing a cancer immunotherapy that has the potential to be safer than most presently available treatments and very cost-effective. We truly appreciate the ongoing support of our investment partners for enabling us to achieve a rapid growth trajectory.”

Immunopheresis is an out-patient procedure analogous to standard dialysis treatments that remove waste products from a patient’s bloodstream through external filtration. The process uses Immunicom’s proprietary blood-filtering technology to extract tumor-produced proteins in the bloodstream that inhibit the body’s natural immune system from attacking and eradicating tumors. This approach provides for a potentially robust immune response against the tumor cells and is intended to function also as an ideal adjunct therapy to existing treatments, according to the company.

“Immunicom is uniquely positioned to have a fundamental impact on improving the lives of cancer patients worldwide,” said company chairman David Schlotterbeck, also former co-chairman of Cardinal Health. “Successfully bringing to market a medical device that not only has strong potential to treat a wide variety of cancer types, but (that) with relatively straightforward design modifications may be reconfigured to treat other major illnesses as well, would be an industry game-changer. And that is precisely the objective our organization strives to achieve.”

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