Argos Therapeutics wraps up remainder of $35.2M in financing

Updated November 24, 2008

Argos Therapeutics wraps up remainder of $35.2M in financing

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Durham, N.C. —

Argos Therapeutics has closed on last of $35.2 million in additional financing that it originally announced in April.

The company, which used to be called Merix, said the Series C funding will be used for clinical trials of proposed therapeutics built around the human immune system.

Reaching milestones in those trials led to the final allocation of funds.

Argos lined up $5 million in debt financing to advance its clinical trials last year.

Argos has several clinical trials under way, a Phase II for renal cell carcinoma, a Phase I and II for a form of leukemia and a Phase I for an HIV and cancer immunotherapy.

The HIV candidate is a personalized treatment based on an individual’s dendritic cells, which are part of the immune system.

Argos last year received a $21 million contract from the National Institutes of Health to develop therapies for combating HIV. Argos has now landed $88 million in venture capital. Local investors include The Aurora Funds and Intersouth Partners.

“Argos has made substantial progress in all areas of focus since the closing of the first tranche of this financing, triggering the receipt of these additional funds,” said Argoes Chief Executive Officer John Bonfiglio.

“During the second and third quarters, we initiated Phase II trials of Arcelis personalized immunotherapies in renal cell carcinoma and HIV. Supporting our HIV efforts, Argos presented PhaseII data on our Arcelis HIV program at the XVII International AIDS Conference demonstrating the desired immune response to patient-specific antigens. Further, we have published results and presented findings which support our approach to creating personalized immunotherapies.”