ITBMed Receives $67 Million to Advance Possible Breakthrough Transplant Drug Siplizumab

ITBMed announces the completion of an equity investment of up to  $67 million, led by Pablo Legorreta, the founder and CEO of Royalty Pharma. This capital injection will be used to develop siplizumab in its lead indication of induction of tolerance in organ transplantation, where it has been successfully used in a phase II trial to permit organ transplants without the need of lifelong immunosuppression.

ITBMed will use the funding to continue its research efforts to develop groundbreaking treatments for transplant patients.

“The treatment being developed by ITB has the potential to transform the field of organ transplantation. As evidenced by the highly promising phase II data in HLA-mismatched kidney transplant patients, siplizumab can achieve tolerance of the transplanted organs without the need for chronic immunosuppression. While significant progress has been made in organ transplantation, rejection remains a long-term problem. A large unmet medical need remains due to the significant negative health consequences of long-term immunosuppression and the transplant rejection that often occurs despite the use of immunosuppressants. ITBMed’s treatment can effectively address this large unmet need, potentially providing patients with the same quality of life as a healthy person,” said Mr. Legorreta.

Long term immunosuppression is a serious issue for transplant recipients. While preventing rejection of the transplanted organ, the drugs leave the patient vulnerable to infections. The Ph II trials suggest that siplizumab may allow some transplant patients to live without immunosuppressants. The study results also suggest that siplizumab may allow surgeons to transplant any organ into any patient.

Siplizumab has been around for quite a while. It has been studied as a treatment for psoriasis (as early as 2001) and in combination with other drugs in cancer treatment. Medimmune abandoned development of the drug for psoriasis when results did not match those of other treatments.

Siplizumab received orphan drug status in the US in February of 2017 for organ transplantation. It was granted orphan drug status in the EU in November of 2017.

More than 30,000 organ transplants are performed in the US each year.