NexImmune deal

An investor group acquired immuno-oncology company NexImmune for an undisclosed amount. The group includes Sol Barer, former Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG, Summit, N.J.) chairman and CEO and current chairman of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TEVA; Tel Aviv:TEVA, Petah Tikva, Israel); his son Joshua Barer, a managing director at Sunflower Life Sciences; William Hawkins, who was chairman and CEO of Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT, Dublin, Ireland); and other undisclosed investors NexImmune expects to submit an IND in late 4Q17 for an open-label Phase I/II trial of lead product AIM ACT to treat hematological malignancies. The candidate is a CD8 T cell-activating adoptive cellular therapy based on NexImmune’s Artificial Immune (AIM) technology. The platform is designed to replace damaged, dysfunctional or absent natural antigen-presenting cells with artificial antigen-presenting cells that direct specific immune responses. NexImmune has exclusive, worldwide rights to the platform from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Md.)...