Platinum leads immuno-oncology company HaemaLogiX’s $10m capital-raising round

The clinical-stage immuno-oncology and immunotherapy company, led by Bryce Carmine, is developing treatments for patients with blood cancers, has raised $10 million via a placement. The investment from Platinum comes from its international health care fund.

The funding will enable the company to progress its lead asset, KappaMab, which has potential as an efficacy-boosting treatment that has a good safety profile and could be used alongside standard care options for myeloma cancer patients.

KappaMab is a monoclonal antibody that targets an antigen on the surface of the cancer cell, which is believed to inhibit a person’s own immune response. KappaMab is designed to enable the immune system to recognise the abnormal cancer cells and kill them.

Platinum Asset Management fund manager Bianca Ogden said the fund had been following the progress of HaemaLogiX and believed now was the right time to buy into the business.

“To us, it has great potential, and it needs to move faster into the clinic because the space is competitive. It has a real opportunity and needs support from a partner and to get that you need to do the right trials and get on with it,” she said.

“In the US and Europe, companies are well funded and can move quicker than here. We thought we want this to move now and get the scale up. “This was the right time for us to start investing and hopefully in the future there will be a bigger [funding] round.”

Ogden said the round came with an attractive valuation, which will have plenty of upside if the therapies continue to progress well. She expects the business will look to raise a larger round next year and Ogden is hopeful other institutional backers will come on board.

As well as KappaMab, HaemaLogiX also plans to progress its antibody for lambda-type multiple myeloma, which accounts for 30 per cent of multiple myeloma patients. 

Anthony Macdonald co-edits Street Talk, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets. He has 10 years' experience as a business journalist and worked at PwC, auditing and advising financial services companies.