WARREN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#CD8—Tevogen Bio, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing cell and gene therapies in virology, oncology, and neurology, today announced it has completed a strategic investment by HMP Partners of New Jersey, a life sciences investment firm managed by medical doctors.
Tevogen’s next generation precision T cell platform is designed to provide increased target specificity to eliminate malignant and viral infected cells, while allowing healthy cells to remain intact. Multiple targets are selected in advance with the goal of overcoming mutational capacity of cancer cells and viruses. The potentially disruptive technology is designed to allow development of unmodified T cell therapeutics from a single donor to treat hundreds of patients sharing the same human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type, without the need for specialized medical facilities. Tevogen believes that this “off-the-shelf” convenience will make it possible to develop T cell therapies with greater convenience, unprecedented speed, and at a much lower cost than currently available platforms, such as CAR-T. This creates an opportunity to dramatically improve health outcomes for large patient populations battling common life-threatening cancers and viral infections.
Tevogen intends to use the net proceeds from the investment to expedite expansion of Tevogen’s development pipeline and to support accelerated development of Tevogen’s lead product candidate. The candidate, TVGN-489, is a COVID-19-specific CD8+ T lymphocyte (CTL) investigational product, currently in proof-of-concept trial that recently passed its midway point. TVGN-489 is a highly purified product designed to detect proteins that are spread across the entire viral genome and found across COVID-19 variants. In addition, TVGN-489 is designed not to be susceptible to spike mutations as the targets are selected from the entire genome.
Tevogen believes that therapeutic approaches to date have not harnessed CD8+ Cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes, also known as killer T cells to their full potential for clinical application. Currently available approaches include both genetically unmodified T cells applied to the treatment of viruses early after transplant and genetically modified CAR-T cells used to treat a selected subset of malignancies.
Tevogen CEO Ryan Saadi, M.D., M.P.H., said, “We are excited to continue to partner with this exceptional group of investors who, as medical experts, are keenly in tune with what we see as the vast potential of personalized CD8+ Cytotoxic T lymphocytes for therapeutic purposes. The Tevogen team has developed an innovative technology that we believe will enable development of affordable T cell therapies for millions of patients suffering from cancers and viral infections, and we are gratified that HMP Partners has invested again.”
“We have experienced how disruptive technologies like Tevogen’s precision T cell platform can bring profound changes to medicine and are impressed by the accomplishments and business acumen Tevogen leadership has shown in a short 18 months,” said Hema Patel, Managing Partner of HMP Partners. “We are excited to make another investment in Tevogen’s ingenuity and are hopeful Tevogen’s novel business model built on bringing life-saving therapies to large patient populations will become the gold standard in the biopharma industry and usher in a new frontier of medicine. We believe Tevogen has significant potential, and based on a discounted cash flow analysis, think the company’s valuation even today could be in excess of $5 billion.”
About Tevogen’s Next Generation Precision T Cell Platform
Tevogen’s next generation precision T cell platform is designed to provide increased specificity to eliminate malignant and viral infected cells, while allowing healthy cells to remain intact. Multiple targets are selected in advance with the goal of overcoming mutational capacity of cancer cells and viruses.
Tevogen believes its technology has the potential to overcome the primary barriers to the broad application of personalized T cell therapies: potency, purity, production-at-scale, and patient-pairing, without the limitations of current approaches. Tevogen’s goal is to open the vast and unprecedented potential of developing personalized immunotherapies for large patient populations impacted by common cancers and viral infections.
About Tevogen Bio
Tevogen Bio is driven by a team of distinguished scientists and highly experienced biopharmaceutical leaders who have successfully developed and commercialized multiple franchises. Tevogen’s leadership believes that accessible personalized immunotherapies are the next frontier of medicine, and that disruptive business models are required to sustain medical innovation in the post-pandemic world.
About HMP Partners
HMP Partners of New Jersey is a life-sciences investment fund formed by a consortium of medical doctors who are dedicated to supporting the advancement of potentially life-saving technologies.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to Tevogen Bio™ Inc (the “Company”) and its business. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs as of the date of this release and are subject to a number of factors which involve known and unknown risks, delays, uncertainties and other factors not under the Company’s control that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or other expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can sometimes be identified by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “intend,” “expect,” “believe,” “potential,” “possible,” or their negatives or comparable terminology, as well as other words and expressions referencing future events, conditions, or circumstances. In any forward-looking statement in which the Company expresses an expectation or belief as to future results, there can be no assurance that the statement or expectation or belief will be achieved. Various factors may cause differences between the Company’s expectations and actual results, including, among others: the Company’s limited operating history; uncertainties inherent in the execution, cost and completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials; risks related to regulatory review and approval and commercial development; risks associated with intellectual property protection; and risks related to matters that could affect the Company’s future financial results, including the commercial potential, sales, and pricing of the Company’s products. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or any of the information in this release, or provide additional information, and expressly disclaims any and all liability and makes no representations or warranties in connection herewith or with respect to any omissions herefrom.
Contacts
Media Contact:
Katelyn Joyce
Corporate Communications Lead
Katelyn.joyce@tevogen.com