Inovio Pharmaceuticals spinoff Geneos Therapeutics, a Plymouth Meeting clinical stage biotherapeutics company, has raised $17 million in a private stock sale to expand its cancer treatment study, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The Series A2 financing was led by European venture capital firm Flerie Invest. The firm specializes in backing life sciences companies that tackle major medical challenges. Santé Ventures, Korea Investment, and Partners Global Bio Fund, Geneos’ existing Series A investors, also participated in this round, as did Inovio.

Geneos plans to use the majority of the funds to expand its clinical trials for the company’s lead new drug candidate GNOS-PV02 to 36 patients, up from the current 24. The personalized cancer vaccine is being developed as a treatment for patients who have advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, which is a type of liver cancer.

The tumor-specific DNA plasmid-based product is designed and made for each patient individually based on their unique tumor mutations.

Ted Fjällman, a partner at Flerie Invest who joined Geneos’ board of directors, said that the company’s personalized immunotherapy has already generated compelling clinical data using an approach that is “well-differentiated from the competition.”

Read more about Geneos Therapeutics in the Philadelphia Business Journal.