Company announces PIPE financing of up to $122 million to advance clinical development of Alzheimer’s-targeting therapy.
US biotech ProMIS Neurosciences (NASDAQ: PMN) announced a private placement financing, potentially worth up to $122 million, after revealing top-line results from the Phase 1a clinical trial of its lead drug candidate targeting Alzheimer’s. The PIPE financing deal raised approximately $30.3 million upfront, with the potential to secure an additional $92.4 million through the exercise of warrants.
Unlike treatments that focus on amyloid plaques, ProMIS’s lead program, an antibody called PMN310, is designed to selectively target soluble amyloid-beta oligomers, which are thought to be a primary driver of Alzheimer’s pathology. These potent neurotoxins, which bind to neurons and inhibit synaptic function, may also be an underlying cause of the neurodegenerative process in Alzheimer’s disease.
According to ProMIS, trial data from four cohorts of healthy volunteers demonstrated that PMN310 has a favorable safety profile, is well-tolerated, and successfully crosses the blood-brain barrier in a dose-dependent manner. No serious adverse events were observed across the tested doses, and the antibody demonstrated a half-life supportive of once-monthly dosing.
“These data are a positive first step in evaluating the potential of our antibody therapeutic candidates, which are designed to selectively target toxic misfolded proteins in neurodegenerative diseases,” said Neil Warma, CEO of ProMIS. “We are looking forward to advancing PMN310 into the Phase 1b portion of the clinical study in Alzheimer’s patients, which we expect to initiate in the coming months.”
The new funding will be used to advance the clinical development of PMN310 as the company prepares for the next phase of trials in Alzheimer’s patients, including an upcoming Phase 1b study later this year.
“These encouraging data from the first four cohorts of our first-in-human Phase 1a clinical trial of PMN310 in healthy volunteers support the safety and tolerability profile of PMN310, and the levels of PMN310 in the CSF suggest its potential for target engagement,” said Dr Larry Altstiel, Chief Medical Officer of ProMIS. “Importantly, these results will inform the dosing of our Phase 1b clinical trial in Alzheimer’s patients, which is on track to initiate in the second half of 2024.”
Photograph: Anne Czichos/Shutterstock
