Louisville, Colo.-based Globeimmune Inc. dipped its toe in the initial public offering (IPO) waters a couple of years ago and found the temperature too cold to dive in, eventually withdrawing its offering late last year. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 1, 2013.)

Now the company is back for a further test of the markets filing its S-1 with the SEC looking to generate $35 million from an IPO. The company has yet to set any pricing terms.

In July 2012 the company filed for a $69 million IPO to advance its cancer and infectious disease products developed using the Tarmogen platform.

Tarmogens are immunotherapeutics designed to stimulate cellular immunity, or T-cell immunity, as opposed to vaccines, which trigger antibody production. In its filing, Globeimmune said that it has five clinical trials evaluating Tarmogen product candidates in oncology and infectious diseases in randomized, controlled phase II trials. One is targeting pancreatic cancer with its GI-4000 along with gemcitabine in midstage trials. Its lead product for infectious disease, GI-5005, is in a phase IIb trial for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). (See BioWorld Today, July 5, 2012.)

The company also reported data from a phase II trial of the GI-4000 Tarmogen in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer in Sydney last October. The study evaluated GI-4000 as consolidation therapy in patients with tumors with mutations in K-Ras following treatment Stage I-III NSCLC. The study enrolled 24 patients, and another 64 case-matched, contemporary control patients were followed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. GI-4000-treated patients demonstrated a trend for improved one-, two- and three-year survival over the case-matched controls.

The company has a collaboration and option agreement with Celgene Corp., of Summit, N.J., focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of certain oncology product candidates and with Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., to develop therapeutic vaccines using Gilead’s Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) for chronic hepatitis B.

In other financings news:

Ataxion Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said it secured series A financing commitments totaling $17 million from Atlas Venture and Biogen Idec Inc. The company’s lead program is focused on a group of orphan genetic disorders termed hereditary ataxias characterized by dysfunction or degeneration of the cerebellum. Patients with these conditions develop severe difficulties walking, speaking and performing daily activities. The drugs under development may also have the potential to treat other forms of ataxia, such as those associated with degenerative neurologic disorders including multiple sclerosis and Huntington’s disease. Biogen Idec is also providing non-dilutive research and development and other funding to Ataxion and will have the option to acquire the company to continue development of the program upon completion of a phase I multiple ascending dose study. In July 2013, Ataxion acquired the ataxia program from Danish biotechnology company Aniona, now renamed Saniona, a leader in ion-channel drug discovery.