Normunity is launching its creation of novel precision anti-cancer immunotherapies, backed by $65 million of Series A financing, the company announced Tuesday.
Normunity is launching its creation of novel precision anti-cancer immunotherapies, backed by $65 million of Series A financing, the company announced Tuesday.
Normunity’s focus is on a new class of agents called immune normalizers. CEO Rachel Humphrey, M.D., told BioSpace they “are designed to fight cancer by targeting previously undiscovered mechanisms of immune disruption.
“Immune normalizers target mechanisms that enable a normal, active immune system into ‘cold’ tumors that are not infiltrated with immune cells, and thus are not recognized by the immune system and resistant to present-day immunotherapies,” she continued.
Humphrey called immune normalizers “an untapped new compartment in the immune system” and said they represent “a lot of white space where other folks are not looking today.”
The basis of this work comes from immuno-oncology researcher Dr. Lieping Chen and his work at the Yale School of Medicine.
The scientific founder of Normunity, Chen has been instrumental in immuno-oncology over the past decades.
The Lieping Chen lab is also credited for identifying PD-L1 (B7-H1). PD-L1 is “one of the most prominent immune checkpoints responsible for reduced antitumor immune responses,” according to Transparency Market Research.
Chen and his lab also invented anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibody therapy, which started as a clinical treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer and has advanced to now be used against a broad spectrum of human cancers.
Despite the normal immune system working as a powerful anti-cancer force, most immunotherapies don’t capitalize on this potential, which is why most cancer patients might not respond to available treatment options, Chen said in a press release.
“The biggest distinguishing factor is that immune normalizers do not rely on immune cells to already be in the tumor environment, which is a requirement for all of today’s cancer immunotherapies to work,” Humphrey said. “There is a great unmet need because between 60-70% of solid tumors don’t have T cells, and therefore are not responsive to today’s immunotherapies.”
The Series A financing will allow Normunity to take the immune normalizers into the clinic. The first pipeline programs on the docket are focussed on initial drug programs that target the exclusion of T-cells from immune-sensitive tumors.
The collaboration between Normunity and Chen’s lab will allow for more immuno-oncology mechanisms to be identified, interrogated and validated pre-clinically and clinically.
While Normunity is not yet disclosing a clinical timeline, Humphrey said the Series A financing while enable the company to take at least one, possibly two drug candidates to Investigational New Drug stage and additional drug candidates to IND-enabling studies.
To date, Normunity has identified at least five potential targets that were discovered through the first of several discovery platforms from Chen’s lab, Humphrey said.
Canaan Ventures, Sanofi Ventures, Taiho Ventures and Osage University Partners provided financing in this round.
