I. What changes - news to watch this week

💰Iovance Biotherapeutics Secures $200M in 2024 and First FDA-Approved TIL Therapy Product

San Carlos, CA – Iovance Biotherapeutics, a leader in innovating cell-based immunotherapies for cancer, recently announced its financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2024.

So, what is Iovance? What is Lifileucel? What is ATM equity financing? Why can the company raise so much?

Iovance Biotherapeutics and Lion Biotechnologies

The story of Iovance goes all the way back to 2007, almost 17 years ago, when it was named as Lion Biotechnologies.

Lion Biotechnologies, which was later rebranded as Iovance Biotherapeutics, was originally incorporated in 2007. The company operated for several years before going public through an IPO in 2013.

The jackpot of this company is really the announcement of the FDA approval of lifileucel in February 2024, is the first application of this therapy to be approved.

Lifileucel

💡 Lifileucel, a tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, represents the first cancer cell therapy explicitly approved for a solid tumor, marking a significant milestone in treating advanced melanoma.

Before getting FDA approval in 2024, in 2022, they are finishing up a Phase 3 clinical trial, and you can read the paper here.

This marks the inaugural use of an FDA-approved TIL therapy product, a moment that is just as profoundly significant as the approval of the first CAR-T cell therapy, Yescarta.

Personally, I expect more TIL therapy products to achieve FDA approval, and the term TIL therapy should be as hot as CAR-T cell therapy.

TIL therapy is an intuitive process: Tumor cells are harvested from the patient, and then, in a lab setting, effective tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are identified and expanded. These potent TILs are then reintroduced into the patient to target and attack the cancer cells.

ATM - At-the-market (ATM) equity financing

💡 At-the-market (ATM) equity financing is a way for publicly traded companies to raise capital by selling new shares of stock directly into the open market over time rather than in a single large offering.

Iovance Biotherapeutics raised $200 million in just the second and third quarters of 2024 through an at-the-market (ATM) equity financing facility because, with the FDA approval of the company's flagship product, Ipilimumab, the value of the company goes up significantly. Here is the financial forecast for the coming year:

Read more about the exit strategy of biotech companies here.

II. What never changes - timeless wisdom

✨ 5 Years, 15 Lessons: What I Learned Scaling and Downsizing a Startup 🚀📉

When I was 23, I started ASIDU, a study abroad consulting agency helping students to study overseas and build a career, and now it is 5 years old. I am very proud of this journey so far, and here are some lessons I want to share with you about what I learned.

1. On Business - Try not to run out of business

   1. Over these past five years, I have seen many dramas in the business world. One thing that I definitely overlooked when I first started my company was to think about how to run this business as long as it can be. Of course, it was very thrilling to finally see my name with the title “Founder and CEO” on a business card, but it should not be the end goal. The end goal is to achieve the startup vision and mission and steer the ship so that the startup can sustain the tides along the way. 

   2. Even before I started my startup, I knew that there was a report published by Gartner every year saying that over 95% of startups cannot pass the 5-year mark. This is the biggest elephant in the room that most startup founders ignored, as they were overwhelmed by all the operations, sales, marketing, and product development work. What struck me recently was seeing how other founders’ friends actually stopped running their businesses along the way.

      

      Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash

   3. Running a business is not the same as running a charity. At some point, people have to pay you, and you deliver certain goods or services. There is always an angel in my head arguing that if the services we provide are free, wouldn’t it benefit even more people and help achieve the startup mission even faster? Actually no. Nobody gives a single F about your company if you offer everything for free.

Continue reading here…

III. Book Quotes

Here are some book quotes for you to ponder over the weekend.

Thanks for reading,

— Anthony