ARMO BioSciences, Inc., a late-stage immuno-oncology company, today announced the successful completion of a $67 million Series C-1 private financing. The Series C-1 proceeds will be used to initiate phase 2/3 studies with ARMO's lead immunotherapy agent AM0010 in non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)  and renal cell cancer and to support an ongoing pivotal phase 3 clinical trial in advanced pancreatic cancer. The proceeds will also support the further development of ARMO's pipeline of additional immunotherapy product candidates that include monoclonal antibodies directed against checkpoint inhibitors. ARMO's proprietary anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody is on track to enter the clinic in 2018 and its anti-LAG-3 monoclonal antibody is advancing in preclinical development.

The financing is led by new investor Qiming Venture Partners. Additional new investors Decheng Capital, Sequoia Capital, Quan Capital and RTW Investments also participated in the financing, along with existing investors Kleiner Perkins (KP), OrbiMed, DAG Ventures, NanoDimension, HBM Healthcare Investments, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Celgene Corporation, and certain private investment funds advised by Clough Capital Partners L.P. In conjunction with the financing, Stella Xu, Ph.D. of Quan Capital and Min Cui, Ph.D. of Decheng Capital have joined ARMO's board of directors.

In June of this year, ARMO presented encouraging data from ongoing Phase 1b studies of AM0010 in pancreatic cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, renal cell cancer, melanoma and colorectal cancer at the ASCO 2017 Annual Meeting in Chicago. The presentations highlighted the promising therapeutic activity of AM0010 in cancer patients based on clinical response rates and survival benefit. AM0010 is a first-in-class pegylated human recombinant interleukin 10 that selectively activates tumor-directed cytotoxic CD8+ T cells in patients.

"In this ever-changing field of immuno-oncology, the combination of AM0010 with standard-of-care chemotherapy or with checkpoint inhibitors may offer novel and competitive treatment options to patients with several types of difficult-to-treat advanced solid tumors," said Peter Van Vlasselaer, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of ARMO. "AM0010's therapeutic potential, observed in our extensive phase 1/1b study with more than 350 advanced cancer patients, garnered strong support from our existing and several new investors. This was an over-subscribed financing that allows us to further develop ARMO's pipeline of immuno-oncology agents and to continue our mission to make a lasting change in the lives of cancer patients."