ImmunoCellular Therapeutics
ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (IMUC) and its subsidiaries is a biotechnology company that is seeking to develop and commercialize new therapeutics to fight cancer using the immune system. ImmunoCellular Therapeutics is primarily engaged in the acquisition of certain intellectual property, together with development of its product candidates and the recent clinical testing for its immunotherapy product candidates, and has not generated any recurring revenues.1
In June 2017, the company announced that the company were unable to secure sufficient additional financial resources to complete the phase 3 registration trial of ICT-107, its patient-specific, dendritic cell-based immunotherapy for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma, which was previously its lead product candidate. As a result, the company suspended further patient randomization in the ICT-107 trial while the company continue to seek a collaborative arrangement or acquisition of its ICT-107 program. The suspension of the phase 3 registration trial of ICT-107 is expected to reduce the amount of cash used in its operations.
ImmunoCellular Therapeutics is developing Stem-to-T-Cell immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer based on rights to novel technology the company exclusively licensed from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The technology originated from the labs of David Baltimore, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate and President Emeritus at Caltech, and utilizes the patient’s own hematopoietic stem cells to create antigen-specific killer T cells to treat cancer. The company plan to utilize this technology to expand and complement its DC-based cancer immunotherapy platform, with the goal of developing new immunotherapies that kill cancer cells in a highly directed and specific manner and that can function as monotherapies or in combination therapy approaches.
Caltech’s technology potentially addresses the challenge, and limitation, that TCR (T cell receptor) technologies have faced of generating a limited immune response and having an unknown persistence in the patient’s body. The company believe that by inserting DNA that encodes T cell receptors into hematopoietic stem cells rather than into T cells, the immune response can be transformed into a durable and more potent response that could effectively treat solid tumors. This observation has been verified in animal models by investigators at Caltech and the National Cancer Institute.
In March 2017, the company announced the successful completion of the first milestone of its Stem-to-T-cell program, the sequencing of a selected TCR, that will become the basis for the product development program. In November 2015, the company entered into a sponsored research agreement with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with the goal of identifying a TCR sequence.
In addition, in 2015 the company acquired an option from Stanford University to evaluate certain technology related to the identification of TCRs that could prove useful in supporting its Stem-to-T-Cell research efforts. In March 2017, a TCR sequence for its Stem-to-T-Cell program became available. In addition, ImmunoCellular Therapeutics has entered into a sponsored research agreement with the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). As part of this collaboration, UMB researchers are undertaking three projects to explore potential enhancements to its dendritic cell and Stem-to-T-Cell immunotherapy platforms.
The Company has incurred operating losses and, as of June 30, 2017 , the Company had an accumulated deficit of $105,657,577 . The Company expects to incur significant research, development and administrative expenses before any of its products can be launched and recurring revenues generated.
