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Tizona Therapeutics completes $43m Series B financing

Tizona Therapeutics, a privately held immunology company harnessing the power of the immune system to develop treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, announced the closing of a $43m Series B financing.

Proceeds will be used to advance the company’s immunotherapy programs. These programs include its lead drug candidate, an anti-CCR4 monoclonal antibody for the treatment of cancer, which is expected to enter the clinic in 2017.

To date, the company has raised more than $70 million through its Series A and B financing rounds to fund its diversified pipeline.

The Series B financing was co-led by Abingworth and Canaan Partners with investments from Lightstone Ventures and existing Series A investors, including MPM Capital, Amgen Ventures, Astellas Venture Management and InterWest Partners. As part of the financing, Shelley Chu, M.D., Ph.D., Partner of Abingworth, Nina Kjellson, Partner of Canaan Partners, and Jean George, General Partner of Lightstone Ventures, have joined Tizona’s Board of Directors.

"We expect Tizona’s anti-CCR4 antibody to play an important role in inducing antitumor activity by depleting regulatory T cells (Tregs), a type of cell crucial to establishing and maintaining an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, " said Pablo J. Cagnoni, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Tizona.

"We have an opportunity to contribute a potentially valuable new addition to the group of novel immunotherapies that is changing standards of care in cancer treatment. With support from this investor group, along with our renowned scientific founders and accomplished team, Tizona is well-positioned to be a leader in the development of next generation immunotherapies."

Tizona was co-founded by the world’s preeminent scientific leaders in translational research and immunotherapy development – Charles G. Drake, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Oncology, Immunology and Urology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center; Vijay K. Kuchroo, D.V.M., Ph.D., Director, Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, Harvard Medical School; Wayne A. Marasco, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Cancer Immunology and Virology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Drew Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D., Abeloff Professor of Oncology, Medicine, Pathology and Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine; Dario Vignali, Ph.D., Vice Chair and Professor of Immunology, Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Co-Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program and Co-Director of the Tumor Microenvironment Center, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; and Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., Lloyd J. Old/Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Chair in Clinical Investigation, Chief, Melanoma & Immunotherapeutics Service, Associate Director, Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Professor of Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In addition, Ana Anderson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Core faculty member of the Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, is a scientific advisor to the company.

In addition to the anti-CCR4 antibody program, proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Tizona’s pipeline, including the company’s IL-35 programs. IL-35 is a recently discovered immunosuppressive cytokine, predominantly expressed by Tregs. IL-35 is involved in suppression of anti-tumor immunity through its modulation of effector T cells, as well as myeloid cells.

Blocking IL-35’s activity may reverse immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment and lead to a robust and effective anti-tumor immune response. Given IL-35’s potent suppressive properties, targeting this pathway also holds significant promise as a potential first-in-class treatment for autoimmune diseases.