Thursday, June 25, 2020
Replicate Bioscience, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company creating novel treatments to prevent drug resistance in cancers, and Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., (“ITI”), a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms, announced today that the companies have entered into a research and licensing option agreement to combine their platform technologies to combat infectious diseases and cancers.
ITI and Replicate will develop candidates combining ITI’s UNITE technology with Replicate’s scalable self-replicating RNA (SynRGY technology) for COVID-19, HPV, and EBV. Through the collaboration, ITI will be responsible for all development costs and ITI will also invest in Replicate Bioscience. As part of the investment, ITI’s Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Teri Heiland, will be appointed to Replicate’s Scientific Advisory Board.
“We are excited to partner with Replicate and invest in their seed round as the first strategic shareholder of the company. They have an impressive team with a wealth of expertise in RNA therapeutics and immuno-oncology and we believe that their SynRGY technology is a next-generation solution for combatting drug resistance in cancer,” said Dr. William Hearl, CEO of Immunomic Therapeutics. “Through this collaboration, we look forward to combining SynRGY with our UNITE platform in infectious disease development programs, including those useful in cancers.”
“Ninety-percent of cancer related deaths are a direct result of drug resistance caused by the evolution of the tumor over time. Developing treatments for drug resistance that are deployable at earlier stages of care is a critical unmet need. Alongside their investment, the Immunomic Therapeutics team brings immense value in supporting the development of our internal wholly-owned immuno-oncology candidates. In addition, their team is ideally suited to clinically advancing our joint candidates,” said Dr. Nathaniel Wang, CEO of Replicate Bioscience. “Through this partnership, we are excited to rapidly advance candidates into the clinic for COVID-19 and infectious diseases that lead to the development and progression of various cancers.”
