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ImmunoGen Pads Cash Balance with $25M Direct Stock Offering(BioWorld Today Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Financings Roundup With several internal and partnered programs in or about to begin clinical development, cancer drug development firm ImmunoGen Inc. shored up its cash position with a $25 million registered direct common stock offering to investor Ziff Asset Management LP. Under the terms, Ziff agreed to buy 7.8 million shares of ImmunoGen stock priced at $3.20 per share. Net proceeds are expected to total about $24.7 million, and will add to the firm's existing cash - $41.2 million, as of March 31 - and ensure the firm has sufficient capital. In its first-quarter earnings report, Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen said it anticipates spending between $14 million and $17 million in operations this year. Capital expenditures for 2008 are projected to fall between $20 million and $21 million. ImmunoGen, which develops targeted cancer therapies using its Tumor-Activated Prodrug (TAP) technology, is juggling several clinical programs, including IMGN242, a TAP drug targeting the CanAg antigen, which is in a Phase II study in gastric cancer patients who failed to respond to first-line therapy. The company recently amended the protocol for that trial, which calls for patients with low levels of CanAg in their serum to receive 126 mg/m(2) of IMGN242 once every three weeks, while patients with high levels of CanAg in their serum will continue to receive 168 mg/m(2) dosed once every three weeks. Aims of the 23-patient study include measuring objective responses, according to RECIST criteria, and pending promising results, the trial will be expanded to 40 patients. The company reported very early data earlier this month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, showing that one of six patients treated had a notable response to treatment. That patient, who was diagnosed with gastroesophageal junction cancer in 2004 and had extensive metastases upon entering the trial, had an unconfirmed partial response after her second dose of the compound. ImmunoGen retains all rights to IMGN242. The company also is advancing on its own with IMGN901, a CD56-targeting compound that is in Phase I testing in multiple myeloma and in Phase I and Phase II trials in patients with solid tumors expressing CD56. Clinical findings from those studies are anticipated in the fourth quarter. ImmunoGen also aims to start a trial testing IMGN901 in multiple myeloma patients in combination with an approved multiple myeloma product. Meanwhile, the firm's partnered programs also continue to move forward. ImmunoGen is expecting word from collaborator Genentech Inc. later on whether it will proceed with a Phase III program for trastuzumab-DM1, a product that combines ImmunoGen's DM1 cell-killing agent with the South San Francisco-based firm's approved HER2-targeted drug trastuzumab (Herceptin), in breast cancer. A Phase II trial is under way with that program, testing trastuzumab-DM1 in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients who have progressed on HER2-directed therapy. Early results from that trial are expected later this year. With partner Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis Group, ImmunoGen has AVE9633, a TAP compound comprising ImmunoGen's CD33-targeting antibody and its DM4 cell-killing agent, which is in Phase I development in acute myeloid leukemia. The companies also partnered on SAR3419, a TAP compound targeting CD19, which is in Phase I testing in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and are progressing AVE1642, a naked (nonconjugated) monoclonal antibody targeting insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor in advanced solid tumors. Recently, two other partners have submitted investigational new drug applications for their respective TAP programs. Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen Idec Inc. filed an IND for BIIB015, a compound that uses Biogen's Cripto-targeting antibody and ImmunoGen's DM4, and Biotest AG, of Dreieich, Germany, is set to start clinical testing with BT-062, a compound composed of Biotest's antibody for multiple myeloma and DM4. ImmunoGen, which reported a net loss of $12.8 million, or 30 cents per share, for the first quarter, anticipates a full-year 2008 net loss of between $28 million and $31 million. The company's shares (NASDAQ:IMGN) closed at $3.20 Monday, up 19 cents, or 6.3 percent. In other financings news: ? BioCancell Therapeutics Inc., of Jerusalem, said its board approved a $3.7 million fundraising through a private placement of equity, convertible bonds and warrants to Tikcro Technologies Ltd. ($2.5 million), Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd. ($1 million) and the Provident Fund of the Employees of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd. ($150,000). Of those amounts, each investor will allocate 20 percent to receive common stock priced at 78.2 cents apiece and 80 percent to a four-year note bearing interest at a rate of 10 percent per year, convertible at a price per share of 88.9 cents. Each investor also will receive a five-year warrant. As part of the deal, Tikcro will sign a voting agreement with BioCancell stockholders to enable Tikcro, Clal and Avraham Hochberg, BioCancell's founder and chief scientific officer, to each nominate their own candidate to the company's board. BioCancell develops personal and targeted approaches to cancer treatment based on the identification of particular genes expressed only in tumors. ? EyeCyte Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., secured Series A funding of $3 million through an agreement with New York-based Pfizer Inc. That financing is expected to support the young firm into 2010 and will be used to drive product development of the company's stem cell/progenitor cell-based ophthalmology research, specifically the initial clinical target of diabetic retinopathy. Under the terms, Pfizer's investment will give it an advisory and board role in EyeCyte, and the big pharma firm will hold the right of first refusal for a buyout of EyeCyte or its technologies. ? Sequenom Inc., of San Diego, filed a preliminary prospectus supplement to a shelf registration statement for a proposed offering of 5.5 million shares. Those shares have not yet been priced. The company plans to grant underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 825,000 shares. Sequenom said it intends to use proceeds for the development of diagnostic tests for use on its MassARRAY system and other platforms and for general corporate purposes. Lehman Brothers Inc. and UBS Investment Bank are acting as joint book-running managers, while Leerink Swann & Co. Inc. and Lazard Capital Markets LLC, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and Rodman & Renshaw LLC are serving as co-managers. Shares of Sequenom (NASDAQ:SQNM) closed at $14.17 Monday, down 8 cents. ? SIGA Technologies Inc., of New York, said one of its largest investors, MacAndrews & Forbes LLC, agreed to supply as needed up to $8 million in financing. Under the terms, SIGA has the option at any time in the next 12 months to ask the investor to buy common stock in up to three tranches at a purchase price per share equal to the lesser of $3.06 and the average of the volume-weighted average price per share for the five trading days immediately preceding the purchase date. The company also agreed to issue warrants to MacAndrews & Forbes to purchase up to 40 percent of the number of shares it acquires, at an exercise price equal to 115 percent of the purchase price. SIGA said proceeds will be used to fund its ongoing research and development activities, to enhance its ability to commercialize its products and for general corporate purposes. The company's lead product, ST-246, is in development for smallpox, while earlier-stage programs are aimed against Lassa fever and the Marburg and Ebola viruses. Shares of SIGA (NASDAQ:SIGA) gained 14 cents Monday to close at $3.41. n ? ? Copyright ? 2008 Thomson BioWorld, All Rights Reserved. |