Hul Imunomic CEO "All-out Effort to Develop COVID Vaccine and Brain Tumor Treatment"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] HL Biopharma announced on the 3rd that William Hull, CEO of Hull Immunomic Therapeutics, conducted an interview with the Washington Business Journal in the United States.

Dr. Hull stated regarding the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, “Immunomic Therapeutics has the capability to produce antibodies that can be used for the diagnosis or treatment of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).”

Immunomic Therapeutics is a Maryland-based biotech company that HL Biopharma decided to acquire last January. William Hull is the founder and CEO of Immunomic. He started the business in 2006 in Maryland, USA, with Professor Tom August of Johns Hopkins University and possesses an immunotherapy vaccine platform technology called ‘UNITE (UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression).’ The company has experience licensing out allergy vaccine technology to Astellas, the second-largest pharmaceutical company in Japan. Currently, it is focusing on developing cancer treatment vaccines. Recently, HL Biopharma’s large-scale investment and acquisition news have brought more attention to the company.

In the interview, Dr. Hull said, “We secured funding from HL Biopharma at the end of January to accelerate research on glioblastoma (malignant brain tumor) and to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.” Regarding the development of a treatment for glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor, he emphasized, “Based on the results of Phase 1 clinical trials, we expect our brain tumor treatment to be delivered to patients quickly.”

He added, “Our goal through the brain tumor program is to establish brain tumor centers domestically and internationally, and we are developing not only cell therapies but also off-the-shelf nucleic acid-based therapies.” He emphasized, “In particular, nucleic acid therapies are products that can be administered immediately after diagnosis.”

Notably, Immunomic is focusing on developing immuno-oncology drugs to treat glioblastoma patients as well as vaccines for the COVID-19 virus.

Earlier, HL Biopharma announced last month that Immunomic plans to pursue an IPO on the NASDAQ or KOSDAQ market. Regarding the IPO, CEO Hull said, “We hope the market will perform well in the first quarter of next year,” and added, “Based on a stable financial situation, we hope that the glioblastoma treatment will be fully commercialized worldwide in 2023.”