$30 Million Financing Backing MIT-Developed Amphiphile
Platform to Target a Wide-Range of Immunogens to the Lymph Nodes, the
“Brain Center” of the Immune Response
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CEO?src=hash” target=”_blank”gt;#CEOlt;/agt;–Elicio
Therapeutics, a next generation immuno-oncology company, engineering
therapies for cancer killing immune responses, launched today and
announced the appointment of Robert Connelly as CEO. Elicio is
developing precision vaccines, immuno stimulators and cellular therapies
based on the ground-breaking work of Darrell Irvine, Ph.D., Professor of
Biological Engineering and Materials Sciences and Howard Hughes
Investigator at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Elicio was formed to transform the lives of patients by re-engineering
the body’s immune response to cancer. By combining expertise in
materials science and immunology, Elicio is engineering potent cancer
vaccines and immunotherapies for an array of aggressive solid and
hematologic cancers. Elicio’s Amphiphile platform enables, for the first
time, precise targeting and delivery of immunogens directly to the
lymphatic system, substantially enhancing the body’s own system of
immune defenses, with the aim to achieve durable cures.
Elicio has demonstrated promising preclinical data in multiple in vivo
models of cancer. The company’s lead vaccines targeting pancreatic,
colorectal and head and neck cancers will enter initial patient studies
in the first half of 2020. These programs are followed by a broad
preclinical pipeline of vaccines, adjuvants, cellular therapy vaccines
and immuno stimulatory therapeutics.
Elicio Executive Chairman Julian Adams, Ph.D., commented, “The
Amphiphile platform developed by Elicio alongside Darrell Irvine and his
MIT team has the potential to truly unlock the immune response leading
to durable cures for an array of cancers. We are delighted to bring in
Robert Connelly, a proven entrepreneur and leader, to build this company
as we enter our initial patient trials.”
“I am honored to lead this amazing Elicio team and work closely with
Julian and Darrell,” said Robert Connelly, CEO of Elicio. “The great
early promise of cancer vaccines has fallen well short and exciting new
immunotherapies often fail or are limited due to their inability to
target and concentrate in lymph nodes, where the immune response is
orchestrated. There is no other platform that can potentially produce
highly effective cancer vaccines and adjuvants while also combining with
cellular therapies such as CAR-T, TILs, and NK cells to substantially
enhance their effectiveness and address their deficiencies.”
Connelly is a prolific entrepreneur and company builder with more than
30 years of experience in the life science industry, nearly 20 of those
spent as a CEO building startup and early stage novel therapeutic
platform companies. He was the founding CEO and first employee of
Domantis, which sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2007 for $454 million, and
served as CEO of Pulmatrix (NASDAQ: PULM) and Axcella Health, as well as
a Director on numerous biotechnology company Boards. Over the course of
his career, Mr. Connelly has raised over $300 million in private equity
financing, led numerous partnering transactions including product and
platform licensing, government and foundation funding, and M&A
transactions, and launched innovative platforms and products across
disease areas. Mr. Connelly also serves as a director for Anchiano
Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ANCH) and was previously a Venture Partner with
Flagship Pioneering. Connelly began his career at Abbott Laboratories.
About Elicio Therapeutics
Elicio, based in Cambridge MA, is
committed to transforming the lives of patients and their families by
re-engineering the body’s immune response to defeat cancer. By combining
expertise in materials science and immunology, Elicio is engineering
potent vaccines and immuno-therapies for an array of aggressive cancers.
Elicio was founded to expand and apply the ground-breaking Amphiphile
technology invented and developed by Darrell Irvine Ph.D., Professor of
Biological Engineering and Materials Sciences and Howard Hughes
Investigator at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Elicio’s lead Amphiphile
vaccines targeting pancreatic, colorectal and head and neck cancers will
begin initial patient studies in the first half of 2020. For more
information please visit www.elicio.com.
Contacts
Liza Sullivan
lsullivan@denterlein.com
Mobile:
917-981-7494