A cross-border Life Sciences team advised Akamis Bio on its Series A Prime financing round and entry into a strategic partnership for the development of its lead clinical candidate, NG-350A, together raising up to $60 million for the company.
The Series A Prime financing was led by Sedgwick Yard, a global biotech venture capital firm with Greater China roots. In a separate transaction, Akamis Bio entered into a licensing agreement granting Xuanzhu Biopharma the Greater China Region Rights to NG-350A. Under the terms of the licensing agreement, Akamis Bio is eligible to receive undisclosed upfront payments plus regulatory and sales milestones, as well as tiered royalties in the high single- to low double-digit range on Greater China Region NG-350A sales.
The new funding will support the company’s work to advance NG-350A through a Phase 1b clinical proof-of-concept (PoC) study in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). NG-350A is an intravenously delivered, transgene-armed tumor gene therapy designed to drive intratumoral expression of a CD40 agonist monoclonal antibody in both primary and metastatic epithelial-derived solid tumors. The Phase 1b PoC study, known as FORTRESS (NCT06459869), will evaluate clinical complete response (cCR) rates to NG-350A in combination with chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in adult patients with LARC and at least one risk factor for local or distant recurrence.
Led by CEO Howard Davis, Akamis Bio is a clinical-stage oncology company using a proprietary Tumor-Specific Immuno-Gene Therapy (T-SIGn®) platform to deliver novel immunotherapeutic proteins, biomolecules and transgene combinations to treat solid tumors. The company is developing a portfolio of solid tumor-targeted T-SIGn therapeutics which aim to enable a patient’s own immune system to recognize, attack, and clear their cancer.
The deal team for the Series A Prime financing was led by Graham Defries, Mitchell Bloom, Maria Dragun, Jack Christian and Duy Le.
The deal team for the strategic partnership was led by Alan Wang and Noelle Dubiansky.
For more details, please see here.