NEW YORK – Aceopodia on Tuesday completed a $47 million Series B funding round to support further development of its lead product, a natural killer (NK)-cell therapy being studied in HER2-positve tumors.
The company will put the funding toward a Phase I study of ACE1702 in advanced or metastatic HER2-expressing solid tumors. The trial began enrolling patients last August and includes arms for those with HER2-postive breast, gastric, and endometrial cancers.
The funding will also be used to advance Acepodia's preclinical NK- and gamma delta T-cell therapy pipeline into the clinic, which will also be designed with biomarker-specific antibodies. Acepodia has cell therapies in preclinical studies for CD70-expressing acute myeloid leukemia, CD20-expressing hematological cancers, and PD-L1-positive solid tumors. The company expects to complete investigational new drug application-enabling studies for two additional products in 2021, though the firm did not disclose which products.
Acepodia previously raised $10 million in a Series A round, and those investors also participated in the Series B. New investors in the latest round included Ridgeback Capital Investments, 8VC, and the Taiwan-based CDIB Capital Healthcare. Previous investors DEFTA Partners, Center Ventures, Top Taiwan Venture Capital Group, and China Investment & Development also participated in the Series B round.
"Accessible and effective allogeneic, off-the-shelf cell therapies will be an important part of next-generation cancer therapy," Acepodia CEO Sonny Hsaio said in a statement. "With our discipline and capital efficiency, we are well-positioned to execute on our corporate objectives, including the continued clinical development of these therapies, including our lead candidate ACE1702 for the treatment of solid tumors, and execution of future clinical trial initiations for our promising preclinical portfolio of NK- and NK-like gamma delta T-cell therapy candidates."
Acepodia was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with another location in Taiwan.