AKD has assisted ISA Pharmaceuticals with the closing of a EUR 26 million funding round with participation from new investors including Invest-NL and existing investors including Regeneron. The proceeds of this round will be used to advance the lead product ISA101b towards first marketing authorization as well as to broaden the clinical pipeline of immunotherapies based on the Synthetic Long Peptide (SLP®) platform technology.

SLP® immunotherapies act through the specific activation of the patient’s own immune system. Lead product ISA101b targets cancers caused by human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV16). It is in late stage clinical development in three trials for the treatment of advanced stages of HPV16-positive head and neck cancer and cervical cancer in combination with Libtayo® (cemiplimab, anti-PD1 immunotherapy), which is being co-developed by Regeneron and Sanofi.

The official press release can be found here.

The AKD team was led by Nathalie van Woerkom and further consisted of Rosanne Vlasveld, Rianne Wessels, Nick van Dijk, Fouad el Houzi and Daan ter Wee.