Company name: Advaxis.
Industry: biopharmaceuticals.
Location: Princeton, New Jersey.
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Solution/product: It is developing treatments for advanced cervical cancer and head and neck cancers caused by the human papillomavirus. The immunotherapy treatment targets cells expressing the HPV gene E7 that change infected cells into malignant tissue, according to the company’s website. Its treatment reprograms these cells to generate a cellular immune response to HPV E7. It currently has four phase 2 clinical trials under way for the immunotherapy in the U.S., India and the UK. It also has a prostate cancer immunotherapy in preclinical development.
Money raised: It has raised $10 million from the Magna Group Capital Management’s equity enhancement program. It has also raised $1.4 million from a combination of convertible notes and warrants, according to a company statement.
How it will be used: The money will be used to help fund its immunotherapy treatment program.
Management team: Prior to joining Advaxis as chairman and CEO, Thomas Moore was the CEO of Biopure Corp., a developer of oxygen therapeutics that are intravenously administered to deliver oxygen to the body’s tissues, according to the company’s website. He has also worked for Procter & Gamble where he served as president of healthcare products, among other roles. Mark Rosenblum, the chief financial officer, previously worked at Wellman, a chemical and recycling company. John Rothman, executive vice president of science and operations, previously worked at Roche where he served as director of clinical drug development and later as senior director of data collection, analysis and report writing for the drug developer. Robert Petit, vice president of clinical operations and medical affairs, worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb before he joined Advaxis. He was the U.S. medical strategy lead for its skin cancer drug ipilimumab. He also was director of medical strategy for new oncology products and director of global clinical research.
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Market: About 12,170 newly diagnosed cervical cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2012, according to data from the American Cancer Society. About 4,220 deaths from cervical cancer were estimated for the same year.
