Prescient Therapeutics has raised $6 million from shareholders and investors. The money will fund its lead cancer drug through a December dosing review and into the next stage of clinical development.
The oncology-focused company said its Share Purchase Plan brought in $4,798,108 from existing shareholders after final reconciliation. A follow-on placement to sophisticated and professional investors covered the shortfall and added a further $1,203,699.96.
Placement shares were priced at 6.5 cents, the same price as shares under the purchase plan. About 18.5 million new shares will be issued through the placement.
Prescient said the raising would strengthen its cash position and fund further work on PTX-100 after the first review by its Dose Optimisation Committee. The committee will recommend which dose to advance and advise whether the study should continue. Subject to clinical results, the company hopes the program will lead to regulatory approval and wider patient access in an area of significant unmet medical need.
Chief executive James McDonnell thanked investors for backing the company. "I want to thank our shareholders, both existing and new, for their continued support of Prescient and our mission to improve outcomes for cancer patients," he said.
"This raise is an important step forward, funding the progress of PTX-100 through Phase 2a. We look forward to the milestones ahead, including the opportunity to advance PTX-100 into a Phase 2b study with registrational potential and, ultimately, toward commercialisation."
Mr McDonnell said the drug could reach that point "whether by bringing PTX-100 to market ourselves or through a partnering outcome."
PTX-100 is the first compound of its kind. It blocks geranylgeranyl transferase 1, an enzyme that can drive cancer growth. Blocking the enzyme disrupts Ras signalling pathways inside cancer cells and causes the cells to die. Mutations in Ras pathways are thought to play a part in up to 22 per cent of all cancers.
The drug was shown to be safe, with early signs of activity in an earlier Phase 1 study and in a basket study covering blood cancers and solid tumours. More recently, it completed a Phase 1b expansion cohort in T cell lymphomas, where the company said it showed encouraging efficacy and safety.
The US Food and Drug Administration has given PTX-100 Orphan Drug Designation for all T cell lymphomas. It has also granted Fast Track Designation for adults with relapsed or refractory mycosis fungoides, the most common subtype of cutaneous T cell lymphoma.
A global Phase 2 trial in relapsed or refractory cutaneous T cell lymphoma is now recruiting. It has enrolled 20 evaluable patients, 10 in each dosing arm, which is enough to trigger the December committee review. Recruitment continues towards a target of 40 evaluable patients.
Prescient is also developing cell therapy platforms. These include OmniCAR, a universal immune receptor system still in preclinical development, and CellPryme A and CellPryme M, designed to improve CAR T cell therapy performance.
