First to See the Light

There is No Post-COVID-19 Culture

Top scientists are confirming our fears: COVID-19 will not be going away anytime soon. Unfortunately, the “post-COVID-19” work culture does not exist, and as we have heard many times before, we are officially entering a new normal. This new normal has presented business leadership with new and unfamiliar challenges, chief among them will be attracting […]

Staying Alive Post Pandemic

Welcome to Spencer Trask Perspectives, a monthly interview series with our CEO Bill Clifford and writer John Essick. In each installment, Mr. Clifford shares his unique insights and expert opinions on topics such as business development, deal flow, C-suite management, startup culture, entrepreneurialism, and more. We welcome your feedback, and encourage you to submit questions […]

Did COVID Disrupt Your Exit Plan? Here’s How to Get Back on Track

Welcome to Spencer Trask Perspectives, a monthly interview series with our CEO Bill Clifford and writer John Essick. In each installment, Mr. Clifford shares his unique insights and expert opinions on topics such as business development, deal flow, C-suite management, startup culture, entrepreneurialism, and more. We welcome your feedback, and encourage you to submit questions […]

The Affordable Care Act: Twelve Years Later

Now is the time to further study evidence-based medicine and shared decision making models to improve healthcare quality and lower costs. By Kevin Kimberlin (Originally published by Medium) Photo Credit: Citizen’s Research Council Getting healthcare right has been one of the largest challenges for the U.S. Now, 12 years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care […]

Supply Chain Unicorn Built on Spencer Trask & Co. AI Venture

Female-led Operational Resilience Firm Closes $100 Million Funding GREENWICH, Conn. (July 27, 2021) Following a 2018 merger with Spencer Trask & Co. venture Trensant, Inc., operational resilience firm Interos, a rare female-led unicorn, closed its $100 million Series C funding led by NightDragon with Kleiner Perkins and Venrock participation. This marks the 12th venture the […]

ST Announces Global Crowdsourcing Program for Polio Eradication

GREENWICH, Conn., Sept. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Spencer Trask & Co., a privately held advanced technology development firm, today announced it has partnered with Rotary International and the World Health Organization (WHO) to crowdsource a global call-to-action for seeking innovative solutions to curtail the spread of online misinformation that is purposely thwarting efforts to eradicate […]

ST Backed Ultra Capital Draws New Capital

OLD GREENWICH, Conn., /PRNewswire/ — Spencer Trask & Co. backed venture Ultra Capital LLC (Ultra), a private equity firm focused on creating sustainable agriculture, energy, waste and water projects at scale, has accepted new investment from Philadelphia-based private equity fund LL Funds. As a result of this transaction, LL Funds is now the anchor equity […]

The Immune Response Corporation

Revolution in Immunotherapy

DISCOVERY – Non-infectious viral vaccines.

INNOVATOR – In the history of medicine, few figures have had as profound an impact on human health and wellbeing as Dr. Jonas Salk. His polio vaccine breakthrough was the culmination of centuries of research, dating back to Louis Pasteur discovering inoculation. However, Salk’s method was different. He found a way to protect people from viruses without giving them the very disease the vaccine was designed to prevent.

Using this no-infection method, Salk worked with Kevin Kimberlin of Spencer Trask to develop cancer vaccines and an immunotherapeutic to slow or prevent AIDS. They patented and conducted preclinical studies on a cancer vaccine that demonstrated a startling 90% protection against lethal malignancies. 

IMPACT – A fusion of dendritic cells and the cancer antigen, their technology formed the basis for the first FDA-approved cell-based immunotherapy. Over 40,000 men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer have received the treatment, and it appears especially effective for African-American men who receive a 48% improved survival benefit compared to white men.

The team and facility making this immunotherapy also made clinical and commercial supplies of the first approved gene therapy, the CAT-T drug Kymriah.

The first approved cell-base immunotherapy and gene therapy prompted the FDA Commissioner to say, “New technologies such as gene and cell therapies hold out the potential to transform medicine and create an inflection point in our ability to treat and even cure many intractable illnesses.”

The noninfectious vaccine approach developed by Jonas Salk eliminated polio from the developed countries, his flu vaccine mitigated the effects of influenza for the past 75 years, and finally, the cancer vaccine developed at his Immune Response Corporation led the way to gene, cell-based, and immune therapy innovations that will impact human health for generations. In summary, Salk released the last step in enabling the most important preventative medicine – non-infectious viral vaccination.