Innate Immunotherapeutics to raise US$10m for Australian MS trial

The company is preparing for the phase IIb clinical of lead product MIS416 in chronic progressive MS.

Public unlisted Innate Immunotherapeutics plans to allocate shares worth 20% of the company in the new financing round. The company has previously raised US$40 and has 1,700 private shareholders.

Funds from the raising will be used to help meet Innate's schedule of rolling out the study in 2013 and completing it in 2014.

Trial results will then be presented to major pharmaceutical companies involved in the global MS market, with an eye to providing an exit for investors in 2015.

Patients at the chronic progressive MS stage currently have no effective long-term treatment options – existing MS treatments have little to no effect.

MIS416 was developed using Innate's immune modulating microparticle technology. The company expects that this platform can also be used to design vaccines to treat or prevent diseases such as cancer, influenza, malaria or tuberculosis.

Innate has previously revealed it chose to conduct the trial in Australia in part due to the greater patient availability and the government's 45% R&D tax incentive.