ISA Pharmaceuticals 

Investment: $5 million 

Investment date: December 2022

Drug: ISA103

Target: : Uveal melanoma, a rare ocular cancer

Prevalence: 1700 patients annually (U.S.)

The firm: Based in the Netherlands, ISA Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing rationally designed, fully synthetic immune therapies against cancer and persistent virus infections. The company has built a proprietary platform based on its synthetic long peptide technology. 

How ISA103 works: ISA103 targets PRAME, an overabundant antigen that plays a central role in survival and spread of various solid and liquid tumors. 

How it's different: ISA has developed a unique technology for creating long peptides, which are chains of amino acids. This proprietary platform allows them to customize the length, composition, and dosage of these peptides for use in therapies. Peptides play crucial roles in the body by performing important biological functions. ISA's technology uses these peptides to stimulate the body's immune system to fight cancer and other diseases.

Trial: ISA103 will be studied in a 90-patient two-part open label Phase 1b/2 trial at MD Anderson in combination with standard of care checkpoint blocker immunotherapies. An initial dose-finding phase will be followed by an expansion cohort using the optimal dose.

Website: https://www.isa-pharma.com