After publishing early clinical results of its ultrasound-activated brain tumor therapy this year, Alpheus Medical has raised $52 million in venture capital funding to support a new randomized trial.
The company’s sonodynamic treatment starts with the patient drinking a drug that’s already been approved by the FDA for use in fluorescence-guided brain surgery. Known as 5-aminolevulinic acid, or 5-ALA, it accumulates within tumor cells to help them stand out from healthy tissue during a procedure.
Alpheus takes a non-invasive approach that does not even require sedation, by applying diffuse, low-intensity ultrasound that causes the drug to release oxygen molecules that then destroy the tumor. With the latest proceeds, the company plans to enroll patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma into a phase 2b trial.
“This investment is a key inflection point for Alpheus and the glioblastoma community—advancing sonodynamic therapy from promise to clinical validation,” the company’s president and CEO, Vijay Agarwal, said in a statement. “With this support, we are poised to generate pivotal evidence that could help establish a new standard of care for newly diagnosed brain tumors.”
Alpheus’ series B round was co-led by HealthQuest Capital and Samsara BioCapital, with participation from returning investors OrbiMed and Action Potential Venture Capital. Other backers included BrightEdge, the investment arm of the American Cancer Society, the Brain Tumor Investment Fund, a subsidiary of the National Brain Tumor Society and the Sontag Innovation Fund.
“The complex and diffuse nature of glioblastomas has long hindered therapeutic innovation,” said Conrad Wang, a partner at HealthQuest Capital. “Alpheus' sonodynamic therapy represents a novel, non-invasive whole brain approach with compelling early data.”
In February, the company had a study published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology that followed three patients with glioblastomas who were not candidates for removing the whole tumor via brain surgery. Following a single dose of the ultrasound-powered therapy before trying other treatments, early imaging results confirmed signs of cancer cell death and no adverse effects or impacts to healthy tissue.
Alpheus put forward first-in-human data late last year, from a phase 1/2 open-label trial that demonstrated an improvement in median overall survival to about 15.7 months, compared to historical averages for the aggressive disease of about 6 to 8 months. Progression-free survival also increased to 5.5 months, versus the typical 1.8 months.