NEW YORK – Brenus Pharma on Wednesday announced that it has raised $25 million in a Series A financing round, which it plans to put toward advancing its allogeneic cancer vaccines.
Investment fund Angelor led the round and brought together a number of other investors from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (AURA) region, including UI Investissement, Crédit Agricole Centre-France, and Crédit Agricole Centre-Est. Noshaq and Investsud also participated, as did Brenus cofounder, Jacques Gardette of Biojag, and longtime investor Stéphane Legastelois of 33 Californie.
Brenus added that it has also received a non-dilutive funding grant from the French government and Bpifrance through a program dubbed France 2030. Earlier this year, Brenus announced that it had received nearly €5.0 million ($5.6 million) for its lead cancer vaccine candidate, STC-1010, as a winner of France 2030's call for proposals for "Innovations in Biotherapy and Bioproduction."
The firm is developing oncology vaccines using what it calls the Stimulated-Tumor-(ghost)-Cells, or STC, platform. The strategy involves a proteomics-guided allogeneic vaccine approach that mimics the relapse conditions for patients' unique tumor cells, which in turn, educates their immune systems to target their tumor cells. The firm plans to tap into its panel of therapeutic targets that comprises over 200 tumor antigens. Lyon, France-based Brenus believes that the ready-to-use production process will be more efficient than the process for developing autologous cancer vaccines.
The firm is currently developing STC-1010 as a treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer and another vaccine candidate, called STC-1020, in an undisclosed solid tumor indication.
Contingent on European regulatory clearance, Brenus is planning to test STC-1010 in a Phase I/IIa study in Belgium and France, dubbed BreAK-CRC. In the Phase I portion, the firm will evaluate the tolerability of different STC-1010 doses plus low-dose immunostimulants and chemotherapy as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer patients. In the Phase IIa portion, Brenus will evaluate the treatment's efficacy, including patients' one-year progression-free survival.
Brenus will enroll patients with tumors that are mismatch repair-proficient or microsatellite stable and mismatch repair-deficient or microsatellite instability-high. Investigators will also study patients' immune responses and conduct circulating tumor DNA analyses in an exploratory portion, hoping to identify a way to predict patient responses. Ultimately, Brenus plans to bring the trial to the US, too.
Brenus expects to evaluate STC-1010 in other gastric tumors, including pancreatic and liver cancer.