26 February 2019 - - US- and Austria-based immunotherapeutics developer Hookipa Pharma Inc has completed a USD 37.4m (EUR 33.2m) series D financing, the company said.

The investment was led by Redmile Group with participation of additional new investors Invus and Samsara BioCapital, as well as a number of current investors.

The new funding will be primarily used to progress the clinical development of Hookipa's lead development programmes, HB-101, a prophylactic cytomegalovirus vaccine candidate, currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial in patients awaiting kidney transplantation as well as HB-201 and HB-202, the company's lead oncology product candidates, in development for the treatment of human papillomavirus-positive cancers.

In addition, Hookipa plans to apply its arenavirus platform to develop additional novel immuno-oncology product candidates.

Hookipa Pharma is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of immunotherapeutics, targeting infectious diseases and cancers based on its proprietary arenavirus platform that is designed to reprogramme the body's immune system.

Hookipa's proprietary arenavirus-based technologies, VaxWave, a replication-deficient viral vector, and TheraT, a replication-attenuated viral vector, are designed to induce robust antigen specific CD8+ T cells and pathogen-neutralising antibodies.

Both, VaxWave and TheraT, are designed to allow for repeat administration while maintaining an immune response.

TheraT has the potential to induce CD8+ T cell response levels previously not achieved by other published immuno-therapy approaches. Hookipa's "off-the-shelf" viral vectors target dendritic cells in vivo to activate the immune system.

Hookipa has successfully completed a Phase 1 trial of a VaxWave-based prophylactic vaccine to protect against cytomegalovirus infection and has started dosing patients in a Phase 2 trial in cytomegalovirus-negative patients awaiting kidney transplantation from cytomegalovirus-positive donors.

To expand its infectious disease portfolio, Hookipa has entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. to jointly research and develop functional cures for HIV and Hepatitis B infections.

Hookipa is building a proprietary immuno-oncology pipeline by targeting virally mediated cancer antigens, self-antigens and next-generation antigens.