ImmuneOncia Therapeutics said Wednesday that it has completed a private equity financing of 43.5 billion won ($38.7 million) led by Paratus private equity fund.

The company, the joint venture established in 2016 between Yuhan and the U.S. pharmaceutical firm Sorrento Therapeutics, aims to develop and commercialize immune-checkpoint monoclonal antibodies to treat blood cancer and solid cancer.

It plans to use the proceeds from the transaction to advance the phase 1 and 2 clinical studies of IMC-001, a programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) monoclonal antibody, and support its earlier stage programs such as IMC-002. Based on the latest financing, the company plans to file for an initial public offering in 2021.

IMC-001 is an immune anticancer drug that targets PD-L1, a protein that resides on the surface of cancer cells. It is a third-generation anticancer drug that treats cancer by using immune cells in the human body to attack cancer cells.

The company is promoting clinical development with the aim of making IMC-001 as the first-to-market treatment for rare cancers.

It has almost completed the phase 1 clinical trials of the drug after receiving regulatory approval to conduct the test in February last year.

“Research and development and clinical trials of our various pipelines are underway,” ImmuneOncia CEO Song Yun-jeong said. “ImmuneOncia's immune cancer drug R&D and clinical tests will become more resilient with this funding.”

Copyright © KBR Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution prohibited