~ Company Founded by Experienced Leaders with Track Record of Developing Successful Next-Generation Medicines for Cancer ~
Burlingame, CA, USA, Dec 1, 2020 /Businesswire/ — Tallac Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company harnessing the power of innate and adaptive immunity to fight cancer, today announced the completion of its Series A financing totaling $62 million. Tallac is backed by a syndicate of leading global life science venture firms including venBio Partners, Morningside Venture, Lightstone Ventures, Matrix Partners China, and MRL Ventures Fund. The Company plans to use the Series A funding to advance the discovery and development of immunotherapy candidates for multiple solid tumor maligniancies. Its pipeline of next generation immunotherapies are derived from its novel Toll-like Receptor Agonist Antibody Conjugate (TRAAC) platform.
Immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive CAR-T therapies have become foundational treatment options in oncology, yet the majority of patients only receive a temporary benefit or no benefit as they either develop resistance to treatment or are non-responsive to treatment.[i] Novel immunotherapies known as Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists are a class of immunotherapy that generates both an innate and adaptive immune response which may produce more robust and durable anti-cancer immunity to help overcome resistance.
“We believe targeting innate immunity represents a transformative approach to creating the next-generation of breakthrough therapeutics in cancer immunotherapy,” said Dr. Hong I. Wan, president, CEO and co-founder of Tallac Therapeutics. “Our team has generated robust preclinical data on the Toll-like Receptor Agonist Antibody Conjugate (TRAAC) platform that we recently presented at the 2020 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) annual meeting. With the support of our existing and new investors, I am excited to lead the Tallac team on its mission to advance first-in-class therapies for the benefit of patients in desperate need of new treatment options.”
“Tallac has developed a scientifically innovative technology platform to create potent, systemically delivered therapeutics with the potential to provide powerful innate and adaptive anti-tumor immunity across multiple tumor types,” said Corey Goodman, board chair, co-founder of Tallac Therapeutics and Managing Partner at venBio. “We are pleased to see the progress made by the team during the seed stage and look forward to supporting Tallac as they advance their pipeline towards the clinic.”
Tallac Therapeutics was founded in 2018 by Drs. Goodman and Wan (previously CSO of ALX Oncology) with two other co-founders, Dr. Jaume Pons (currently CEO of ALX Oncology) and Dr. Curt Bradshaw (most recently CSO at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals), to develop technology for targeted immune activation using an antibody-immune activator conjugate. The research team at Tallac has significant biologics discovery and development expertise. Most recently, under Dr. Wan’s leadership at ALX Oncology, the team designed and advanced ALX148, a best-in-class myeloid checkpoint inhibitor, for multiple tumor indications.
About Tallac Therapeutics, Inc.
Tallac Therapeutics is a privately held biopharmaceutical company harnessing the power of innate and adaptive immunity to fight cancer. Tallac’s pipeline of immunotherapy candidates are derived from the company’s novel Toll-like Receptor Agonist Antibody Conjugate (TRAAC) platform to deliver a potent Toll-like receptor (TLR9) agonist (T-CpG) for targeted immune activation via systemic administration. Several TRAAC molecules are in various stages of discovery and preclinical development. For more information, please visit www.tallactherapeutics.com.
Tallac Media Contact:
Tara Cooper
The Grace Communication Group
650-303-7306
[i] Ventola CL. Cancer Immunotherapy, Part 3: Challenges and Future Trends. P T. 2017;42(8):514-521. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5521300/