NEW YORK – Immutep on Tuesday completed an A$80 million ($53 million) capital raise to support its clinical pipeline.
With this additional capital, the Sydney-based firm said it is fully funded through Q1 2026 and can continue developing eftilagimod alpha, a LAG-3-targeted immunotherapy. Immutep said it has a pro forma cash balance of A$135.2 million.
Immutep is currently studying its lead candidate eftilagimod alpha in two late-stage trials in head and neck cancer and in several breast cancer subtypes. In March, Immutep began a Phase II/III trial of eftilagimod alpha with paclitaxel in patients with HER2-negative or -low metastatic breast cancer.
"These funds will help us further our mission to unlock the power of the immune system to fight cancer and autoimmune disease, including advancing eftilagimod alpha into a new registrational Phase III trial in lung cancer, and supporting its late-stage trials in head and neck cancer and metastatic and triple negative breast cancer, to final data and Phase II readouts, respectively," Immutep Chairman Russell Howard said in a statement.
In March, Immutep expanded enrollment in its Phase I trial of eftilagimod alpha in first-line non-small cell lung cancer patients, including those with low PD-L1 expression or a PD-L1 tumor proportion score of less than 50 percent. The firm is also studying the drug in urothelial cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, and solid tumors.
According to Howard, the funds will allow Immutep to not only explore eftilagimod alpha in new indications but also conduct a first-in-human Phase I trial for the LAG-3 agonist IMP761 in autoimmune diseases.