Gliknik Announces Completion of Equity Financing

BALTIMORE, Jan. 5, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Gliknik Inc., a biopharmaceuticals company creating new cancer and immune disorder therapies, today announced an equity financing completed at a premium price. In the past seven months the company has raised $3.5 million in equity financing. Gliknik expects to use the funds to initiate a clinical program in autoimmune diseases for its lead recombinant candidate from its first-in-class stradomer™ platform.

"An infusion of investor funding highlights a growing vote of confidence as we continue to develop new therapies for patients with cancer and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases," said David S. Block, Gliknik President & Chief Executive Officer. "We now have increased flexibility to take our lead stradomer™, GL-2045, into initial clinical trials on our own or with a partner."

In addition to funding raised from this equity investment, Gliknik has received a total of more than $1 million of non-dilutive competitive grant funding in the last six months from the federal Qualified Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP), a U.S. Army subcontract through the Maryland Proof of Concept Alliance, and a State of Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development (DBED) Translational Research Award.

"Gliknik has demonstrated an exemplary level of productivity, resourcefulness, and capacity to innovate novel molecules with important therapeutic potential. We look forward to the company's future, and are delighted to continue to support the team," noted Joel B. Braunstein, M.D., M.B.A., Co-Founder, Managing Partner, LifeTech Development Partners, an existing investor who also participated in this funding round.

Gliknik also announced today that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has issued a patent protecting the company's immunomodulator program.  Two compounds from this program are currently in clinical trials in advanced Head and Neck cancer and in advanced myeloma, both at the University of Maryland Baltimore. Gliknik exclusively licensed rights to this patent from the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research and has additional patent applications pending on this program.

About the Stradomer™ Platform

Stradomers™ are recombinant drugs for autoimmune diseases. Gliknik's lead recombinant stradomer™, GL-2045, which is in preclinical development, has demonstrated robust efficacy in animal models of inflammation and autoimmunity and is expected to have clinical utility in a number of diseases.

About the Immunomodulator Platform

Gliknik's immunomodulators are peptide drugs that increase CD4, CD8, and antibody immune responses against targeted cancer epitopes with the goal of turning a cancer patient's immune system against his or her tumor.  Gliknik's lead immunomodulators, GL-0817 and GL-0810, are in clinical development.

About Gliknik Inc.

Founded in 2007, Gliknik is a biopharmaceuticals company creating new therapies for patients with cancer and immune disorders. Gliknik expertise is in modulation of the immune system to fight disease. Learn more at www.gliknik.com.

SOURCE Gliknik Inc.