Pamlico BioPharma Announces Financing Led by Accele Venture Partners

OKLAHOMA CITY, April 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Pamlico BioPharma, Inc., a research-stage biopharmaceutical company developing fully human monoclonal antibody (hmAb) therapeutics and point-of-care diagnostics, announced today a $2.2 million Series A equity financing led by Accele Venture Partners, the investing arm of life sciences accelerator Accele Biopharma, and the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund, managed by i2E, Inc. Proceeds of the Series A financing will be used to advance Pamlico's research and development of human antibody therapeutics and diagnostics for infectious diseases and cancer. Pamlico's lead clinical candidate, PneumomAb™, is a mixture of serotype-specific human monoclonal antibodies against Streptococcus pneumoniae (SPN). PneumomAb™ is in preclinical development for the treatment of severe community-acquired pneumococcal pneumonia (SPN-CAP).

Clayton Duncan, Pamlico's Chairman and CEO, stated, "We are very pleased with the progress of Pamlico and the additional support of our investors in the Series A financing.  Currently we have one candidate, PneumomAb™, poised to enter clinical testing in 2016, and we are pursuing additional discovery and antibody isolation programs in important infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B, tuberculosis, human papillomavirus (HPV), and others. Pamlico's proprietary RAPIDmAb™ technology platform leverages the natural "memory" immune response to yield high-affinity, neutralizing hmAbs with broad application for infectious disease. These antibodies are useful in the laboratory as reagents in manufacturing and diagnostics, and in the clinic as point-of-care diagnostics and targeted therapeutics. We have strong preclinical evidence that antibody therapeutics can be an important therapeutic option in pneumococcal pneumonia. If we can reproduce that in the clinic, PneumoMab™ could address at least two-fifths of pneumococcal infections, particularly for patients with moderate-to-severe community-acquired pneumococcal pneumonia that causes 500,000 hospitalizations of adults over 65 in the U.S. each year."

Pamlico will continue to pursue multiple infectious disease targets using the RAPIDmAb™ platform, addressing a number of additional, hard-to-treat infections and expect to announce further programs through 2015 and into 2016.  Mr. Duncan continued, "Our goal is to address important pathogens with unmet clinical needs using human antibody diagnostics and therapeutics. Antibodies have established products for auto-immune and cancer indications, and now the stage is set for antibodies to show they can do the same for infectious diseases. RAPIDmAb™ is a valuable discovery platform that allows us to go after multiple targets with dramatically reduced cost and improved speed compared to other antibody platforms."

About Streptococcus pneumoniae and Pneumococcal Pneumonia

In the United States and Europe, Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (SPN) affects over 50% of the more than 5 million cases, 1.1 million hospitalizations, 170,000 ICU admissions, and 68,000 deaths annually, and is subject to increasing concern related to multi-drug (beta-lactam and macrolide) resistance strains. Severe SPN-related CAP (PSI grade IV-V) has a 20-40% mortality rate. Patients over 65 years old represent 65% of hospitalizations and over 90% of deaths from pneumonia, and vaccination rates in adult patients are under 60%, leaving more than 70 million US adults unvaccinated to SPN. SPN-CAP hospitalizes over 500,000 adults over 65 in the U.S. each year. S. pneumoniae is classified as a "Qualifying Pathogen" under the recent GAIN Act to accelerate development of anti-infectives. PneumoMab™ may qualify as a "Qualified Infectious Disease Product," which can confer Fast Track status on the product and an additional five years of market exclusivity from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

About Pamlico BioPharma, Inc.

Pamlico BioPharma develops fully-human monoclonal antibody (hmAb) therapeutics for the rapid diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases and cancer. Pamlico isolated antibodies to all 24 vaccine serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae, influenza, varicella zoster, and rabies virus. Pamlico's lead program is focused on severe pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (SPN). and is in IND-enabling studies for a mAb cocktail and a companion point-of-care (POC) diagnostic against three serotypes that account for over 40% of SPN infections in pneumococcal CAP. Additional discovery programs are underway for Hepatitis B, tuberculosis, human papillomavirus, and other ID targets. Pamlico was founded on technologies from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) and from Emory University, and its first program is anticipated to enter clinical trials in 2016. For additional information please visit www.pamlicobio.com.

About Accele Biopharma, Inc. (Accele) and Accele Venture Partners I, LP (AVP)

Accele Biopharma ("Accele") and Accele Venture Partners 1 LP, a related special purpose venture fund, were formed to create a capital-efficient mechanism to identify, finance and manage groundbreaking, early-stage life science technologies that have the potential to dramatically improve human healthcare, have strong commercial promise and have the potential for generating early proof of concept data. To achieve this goal Accele has assembled an experienced management team, a group of sophisticated investors, a nationally recognized advisory board, leading research facilities, and the broad scientific expertise necessary to evaluate and manage such opportunities.

Founded in 2011, Accele is located on the University Research Park at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. For more information on Accele Biopharma, please visit www.accelebio.com.

CONTACTS:

Clayton I. Duncan 
Accele Biopharma, Inc.
(405) 319-8165
[email protected]

Justin Jackson
Burns McClellan
(212) 213-0006
[email protected]

SOURCE Pamlico BioPharma, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.pamlicobio.com