NEW YORK – Deka Biosciences on Thursday said it has raised $20 million in a Series B2 financing round, which it will use to advance its therapeutic pipeline, including a Phase I trial of an investigational fusion protein therapeutic DK210 (EGFR).
MPM BioImpact led the financing, with participation from Leaps by Bayer, O-Bio, Viva BioInnovator, Alexandria Venture Investments, Amana Investments, Plains Ventures, ATEM Capital, and Deka CEO John Mum. With this latest financing, Deka has raised a total $55 million to date. In addition, Germantown, Maryland-based Deka said that MPM Managing Director Detlev Biniszkiewicz will join its board of directors.
Among the programs the funds will support is DK210 (EGFR), which Deka developed on its Diakane platform. DK210 (EGFR) comprises wild-type IL-2, high affinity IL-10, and a human antibody-derived single-chain variable antibody fragment engineered to bind EGFR. The treatment combines a stimulatory cytokine with a cytokine that controls inflammation, which Deka believes may reduce toxicity and increase therapeutic potency.
The ongoing Phase I trial is testing DK210 (EGFR) alone and in combination with chemotherapy, radiation, or immunotherapy in patients with solid tumors that have demonstrated response on interleukin-2 or interleukin-10 and/or have a high EGFR-expressing tumor, such as non-small cell lung, skin, head and neck, kidney, bladder, and pancreatic cancers. Patients must have failed one or more lines of systemic therapy and may not have received anti-cancer therapy or had surgery in the past four weeks. Researchers will assess safety, toxicity, and a recommended dose as primary endpoints and, secondarily, overall response, preliminary survival, and certain biomarkers.
"Thus far, we have established safety and clear signs of immune activation in our first two cohorts," said Mumm, adding that Deka is now preparing to dose a third cohort in this study.