TP Therapeutics announced on 10/19/18 its completion of an $80 million round of mezzanine financing. Foresite Capital and venBio Partners led the investment syndicate, with participation from new investors HBM Healthcare Investments (Cayman) Ltd. and Nextech Invest. Also participating were existing investors including Cormorant Asset Management, Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV), Orbimed Advisors and SR One.
TP Therapeutics will use the proceeds to advance its lead product candidate, Repotrectinib (TPX-0005), into a Phase 2 potential registration study in early 2019 for ROS1-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and NTRK-positive solid tumors. The study will enroll patients who already have received a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and have developed resistance or were refractory, as well as those who are TKI treatment-naïve. TP Therapeutics will also use a portion of the funds to further develop its internally discovered pipeline.
In conjunction with the financing, TP Therapeutics announced that Athena Countouriotis, M.D., has been promoted to chief executive officer from her previous role of chief medical officer. Dr. Countouriotis also has been named to the board of directors. Co-founder Peter Li, Ph.D., M.B.A., who has served as chairman and CEO since the company was founded, has transitioned into a new role as head of TP Therapeutics Asia. In this role, he will focus on building relationships with clinical investigators and partners to expand the potential for TP Therapeutics’ pipeline in this important global region. Jean Cui, Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief scientific officer, has assumed the role of chairman. In addition, the board has added two new directors: Brett Zbar, M.D., managing director at Foresite Capital, and Robert Adelman, M.D., managing partner of venBio Partners.
In September 2018, the company released results from a Ph I/II study that showed repotrectinib had an overall response rate of 80% for tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-naïve patients (95% CI, 44-97) and 18% for TKI-refractory patients.
