London, 19 December 2022 – LIfT BioSciences is pleased to announce that it’s lead investor, Starbloom Capital, has provided further investment into the Company to accelerate LIfT’s R&D plans and progress N-LIfT, the Company’s first-to-market anti-cancer innate cell therapy, (Neutrophil Only Leukocyte Infusion Therapy) into clinical development by Q1 2024, within 15 months after demonstrating strong preclinical results.
“Starbloom Capital first participated in LIfT Biosciences financing round in January 2022 and I'm very pleased to continue to support LIfT's unique and truly revolutionary approach” said James Fickel of Starbloom Capital.
The additional funds are being deployed to help tech transfer N-LIfT to Good Manufacturing Practice standards for use in patients as LIfT moves into clinical trials. LIfT will be moving into a major Series A funding round in March 2023.
N-LIfT works by effectively transferring the innate immunity that some exceptional people naturally have in their body from their stem cells to cancer patients. The treatment can potentially give cancer patients around 20 times the cancer killing ability they had been exhibiting themselves. N-LIfT can potentially overcome hurdles encountered by other cell therapies in the treatment of solid tumours, by being:
· Allogeneic, straightforward to scale, cost effective and off-the-shelf
· Innate antigen-independent mechanism-of-action so destroys tumours cells in any form or adaptation
· Actively recruited into the tumour with excellent infiltration
· Stable and capable of overcoming immunosuppressive tumour microenvironments
· Capable of recruiting the rest of the patient’s immune system to join the attack and thereby provide lasting immunity to that form of cancer.
Image of an Immuno-Modulatory Alpha Neutrophil (IMAN) delivering a lethal influx of Calcium Ions into a Tumour Cell to destroy it.
LIfT is also doubling down on investment into its second-generation product CAR-iN-LIfT after showing very promising results in producing its Immuno-Modulatory Alpha Neutrophils (IMANs) from iPSCs, and with transducing genetically engineered CAR add-ins.
CEO, Alex Blyth commented “We have had an incredible year of great scientific advancements. I am delighted that we are now in a position to move N-LIfT into clinical trials by Q1 2024. I have also been astonished by how well the second-generation products are coming along. My intent is that we can get N-LIfT through clinical trials and to desperate patients as fast as possible as a broad therapy for eradicating most solid tumours. If we encounter issues with certain patient tumours, we will then deploy our second-generation product CAR-iN-LIfT to overcome these tumours too. I believe that by using our unique Alpha Neutrophil Platform, and portfolio of products, we will be able to destroy all solid tumours and overcome any challenges, so no patient’s needs go unanswered. I would like to sincerely thank my amazing team, investors and partners who have made all this possible.”
LIfT was also accepted as resident of Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JLABS @ BE. JLABS is a global network of open innovation ecosystems, enabling and empowering innovators to create and accelerate the delivery of life-enhancing health and wellness solutions to patients around the world. As a leader in innovation, JLABS helps entrepreneurs in pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer, and health tech bring healthcare solutions to patients and consumers.
Further information
Investors:
Alex Blyth
+44 (0)7718 759116
Media:
Consilium Strategic Communications Lindsey Neville, Namrata Taak
liftbiosciences@consilium-comms.com
Forward looking statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. LIfT BioSciences does not expect to update forward-looking statements continually as conditions change.