Summary
Humanigen, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on preventing and treating an immune hyper-response called ?cytokine storm'. Lenzilumab is an antibody that binds to and neutralizes granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The company is developing lenzilumab as a treatment for cytokine storm associated with COVID-19 for which it has completed a Phase 3 study and is the focus of a Phase 2/3 study sponsored by the NIH. It is also developing lenzilumab, which is also being studied in conjunction with CD19-targeted CAR-T cell therapies, as well as exploring the effectiveness of lenzilumab in other inflammatory conditions, such as acute Graft versus Host Disease in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and in eosinophilic asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, the company focuses on studying lenzilumab for patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia exhibiting RAS pathway mutations. Its pipeline also includes two other Humaneered monoclonal antibodies, ifabotuzumab, which binds to EphA3, and HGEN005, which targets EMR1. Ifabotuzumab has been evaluated in a Phase 1 study of glioblastoma multiforme that showed tumor specific targeting of all known tumor sites with no normal tissue uptake. HGEN005 is being explored as a treatment for a range of eosinophilic diseases, including eosinophilic leukemia as an optimized naked antibody and as the backbone for a novel CAR-T construct. Humanigen, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey.
History
Humanigen, Inc. was founded in 2015 as Kite Pharma’s wholly-owned research and development subsidiary to focus on G-MAB? technology. Kite announced that it had acquired a majority stake in the company in March 2018. This marked Kite’s first step in entering the Precision Medicine market, as the company sought to expand its pipeline beyond its cancer treatments. Following the acquisition, Humanigen was spun off as a separate, independent company in April 2018.
Mission
Humanigen strives to make a lasting impact on the lives of patients with life-threatening and serious chronic diseases through the development of Humaneered monoclonal antibodies.
Vision
Humanigen aspires to be a global leader in the research and development of Humaneered monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of life-threatening and serious chronic diseases.
Key Team
Mr. Edward P. Jordan M.B.A. (Chief Commercial Officer)
Recognition and Awards
Humanigen was named the 'Startup of the Year' at the 2019 Bisnow Life Sciences Awards. Additionally, Humanigen was named to the 2019 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list, recognizing Humanigen as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America.
References
United States 