Shares in Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC (LSE:HEMO, OTC:HOPHF) rose 9% after it secured a new $350,000 investment from Prevail Partners, an investment fund, as it gears up for important clinical trials. The investment, which comes at a price significantly above the company’s current share value, follows a similar injection of funds in September.
The money will support Hemogenyx’s work on its HEMO-CAR-T therapy, a cutting-edge treatment for blood cancers. The company plans to start trials for pediatric patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in early 2025. Before that, trials for adult patients will begin at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas later this year.
In addition to the financial backing, Prevail’s affiliate, Prevail InfoWorks, will handle clinical research for the pediatric trials. This includes overseeing the trial sites, managing data, and ensuring patient safety. The goal is to push forward with new treatments that could offer hope to patients with relapsed or resistant forms of blood cancer.
Hemogenyx CEO, Dr Vladislav Sandler, said: "As we seek to bring the curative power of cell therapies to children suffering from the otherwise largely incurable life-threatening diseases, AML and ALL, we are very confident in Prevail InfoWorks' ability to coordinate our phase I clinical trial in pediatric relapsed/refractory AML and ALL.
"Their operational experience and expertise will enable a smooth execution of the study, while their specialization in real-time data integration and analytics will ensure fast, reliable data access to lower our clinical risk and potentially speed up our regulatory timeline.
"Prevail Partners' strategic investment in the company, once again at a price very substantially above the company's existing share price, demonstrates their confidence in our CAR-T program and in our ability to execute the upcoming clinical study."