Immune Pharmaceuticals And STC Biologics Announce Strategic Partnership To Accelerate The Development of NanomAbs

Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc.

, a clinical stage bio-pharmaceutical company with a first-in-class monoclonal antibody, bertilimumab, for the treatment of auto-immune diseases, and STC Biologics, a biotechnology development company led by alumni of Genentech, Shire, Novartis and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, announced today that they are entering into a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of NanomAbs, a new generation of Antibody Nanoparticle Conjugates allowing the targeted delivery of chemo-therapeutics. Immune and STC will jointly present pre-clinical proof of concept data today in a poster session entitled: "NanomAbs Novel Targeted Nanomedicine Platform for Improved Cancer Therapy" at the PEGS - The Essential Protein Engineering Summit, MA, May 4-8, 2015, in Boston. PEGS is the premier event for antibody and protein science research and the biologics industry, with more than 1800 participants in attendance from over 30 countries. Dr. Daniel Teper, CEO of Immune commented: "We believe that the combined capabilities and assets of Immune and STC Biologics will allow us to accelerate development toward initial clinical trials with NanomAbs and expand our portfolio of NanomAb drug candidates." Dr. Magdalena Leszczyniecka, CEO of STC Biologics added: "NanomAbs are a promising new platform technology that may allow targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents decreasing the risk of systemic exposure to these products. We believe that our portfolio of antibodies will expand the targeting capabilities of the NanomAbs." The NanomAb technology has been licensed by Immune from Yissum, the Technology Transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was originally developed by Professor Benita, former Director of the Institute for Drug Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Immune Pharmaceuticals-STC Biologics strategic partnership will leverage research capabilities of STC in Cambridge, MA and Immune in Jerusalem, Israel. Development will initially focus on HER2-targeted paclitaxel nanoparticles using an anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody developed by STC, and H-Ferritin targeted paclitaxel nanoparticles using an anti-H Ferritin monoclonal antibody developed by Immune. Licensing and joint-development agreements between STC and Immune are expected to be finalized during the second quarter 2015