Tuesday, December 13, 2011

ImmusanT gets $20M Series A shot for celiac vaccine

By Rodney Brown

Cambridge-based biotechnology company ImmusanT Inc. has raised a Series A round of funding, bringing in $20 million from Vatera Healthcare Partners LLC of New York to move forward its treatment for celiac disease.

In a release issued this morning, ImmusanT said that the new $20 million investment should bring the company’s celiac disease vaccine Nexvax2, to a proof-of-concept stage, along with the supporting diagnostic and monitoring technology ImmusanT is developing. The vaccine triggers an immune response that is intended to allow celiac disease to be treated like a simple allergy with regular injections.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition in which the body cannot tolerate gluten the main protein in wheat, rye and barley. ImmusanT co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Bob Anderson identified the three peptides which make gluten toxic to people with celiac disease. Anderson, an Australian, founded Nexpep Pty. Ltd., based in Melbourne, to develop an immune response vaccine to the three peptides. After meeting with Leslie Williams, the two founded ImmusanT to purchase the assets of Nexpep and make it U.S. company that Williams runs as president and CEO.

ImmusanT was founded with an unspecified amount of seed funding, Williams said in a previous interview, from “high net worth individuals.” The company, founded in 2010, officially launched earlier this year. The Nexvax2 vaccine has already gone through a Phase 1 clinical trail to test for safety, tolerability and bioactivity, the company said in a release.

In August, ImmusanT was recognized as a Mass High Tech “Startup Watch: Five you should follow” company.