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Among them was cell therapy start-up, Affini-T Therapeutics based in Boston, MA, which completed an oversubscribed $175 million financing to advance T cell therapies for intractable solid tumors. Affini-T’s cell therapy platform combines a T cell receptor discovery engine and a series suite of novel synthetic biology switches that can modulate the tumor microenvironment. By optimizing T cell function (improving durability and tumor infiltration) and targeting core oncogenic driver mutations, initially KRAS, the company plans to develop potentially curative cell therapies for solid tumors. The proceeds will be used in part to operationalize its platform discovery engine and progress multiple oncogene driver programs into the clinic.
Meanwhile, Cambridge-based Microbiotica in the UK completed a £50 million ($67 million) series B financing round—the largest microbiome-related financing in Europe to date. Microbiotica, a spin-out from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, cultures and characterizes gut bacteria from patients, and links it with clinical trial outcome data—stratifying/profiling the human microbiome to identify biomarkers and biotherapeutics with the greatest chance of clinical success. The new funds will be used to progress the company’s two lead oral live bacterial therapeutics (LBTs)—one that boosts patient response to checkpoint inhibitor therapy, and another for treating ulcerative colitis—to phase 1b clinical studies, and expand its discovery pipeline of biomarkers and LBTs in new disease areas.
Also in March, Nutcracker Therapeutics based in Emeryville, CA, raised $167 million in a series C financing, to advance its mRNA therapeutics and first-of-its-kind biochip-based manufacturing platform. Nutcracker says its complete RNA therapeutics platform involves advanced engineering and fully automated and isolated manufacturing that combines RNA biochemistry with microfluidic engineering, semiconductor-like biochips, and a proprietary nanoparticle delivery technology. The aim is to increase the speed and scale at which mRNA therapeutics can be discovered, developed, and manufactured. The new funds will allow Nutcracker to expand and advance its pipeline of mRNA medicines for cancer, and further refine its RNA manufacturing technology.
Another mRNA company, start-up RNAimmune based in Gaithersburg, MD, raised $27 million in a series A round to discover and develop mRNA therapeutics and vaccines. The preclinical company, a subsidiary of Sirnaomics, has developed an AI algorithm for antigen prediction and vaccine design, and has exclusive rights to Sirnaomics’ polypeptide lipid nanoparticle delivery technology. RNAimmune plans to use the funding to accelerate and expand its preclinical R&D programs, including filing an IND with the US Food and Drug Administration for its lead candidate, an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. RNAimmune is also advancing its pan-RAS tumor vaccine program (in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles) and prophylactic HSV vaccine program (in collaboration with the University of Houston).
Brussels based Precirix NV, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing precision radiopharmaceuticals in oncology, raised €80 million in a series B round from new and existing investors. Precirix’s platform facilitates the development of radiolabelled single-domain antibodies for multiple targets, in combination with different isotopes and applicability in various settings. Precirix’s technology also allows for patients to be selected using a low dose/imaging version of the product, followed by a therapeutic dose for treatment. The proceeds of this financing will be used to advance and expand the company’s pipeline, including its lead candidate, CAM-H2, currently in a phase 1/2 study for the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast and gastric cancer.
April financings
In April 2022, companies with increasingly novel and slightly unusual tech attracted private financing. Among them was Satellite Bio based in Cambridge, MA, which is pioneering a new type of regenerative medicine called tissue therapeutics. The company raised $110 million in previously undisclosed seed and series A investments. Through its Satellite Adaptive Tissue (SAT) platform, Satellite Bio can selectively program virtually any cells, and then assemble them into novel, implantable therapies, called Satellites. These bioengineered tissues can be integrated into patients to repair, restore or even replace dysfunctional or diseased tissue or organs.
Genetic medicine company Tessera Therapeutics based in Somerville, MA raised over $300 million in a series C financing for its gene writing technology. The company’s technology—gene writing systems based on synthetic mobile genetic elements—enables the correction of single nucleotides, deletion or insertion of short sequences of DNA, and the writing of entire genes into the genome. The company says that writing therapeutics into human genomes this way has the potential to cure nearly any genetic disease, treat other serious conditions such as cancer, and prevent illnesses with curative, scalable, and easily administered genetic medicines. The financing, which brings the total raised to date to more than $500 million, will be used in part to pursue multiple therapeutic programs, including those that target the liver and rare genetic diseases.
Meanwhile, Machine learning startup, Unlearn, closed a $50 million series B funding to advance the use of its machine learning-powered TwinRCTs to optimize clinical trials: Patients are randomized to a treatment or control group, and a digital twin is computed/constructed for every patient using a machine learning model trained on historical control data. According to Unlearn, treatment effects for primary and secondary outcomes can all be estimated with greater precision after correcting for each patient’s prognostic score derived from their digital twin. This enables smaller, faster studies, with more patients in a TwinRCT having access to a potentially beneficial experimental treatment instead of a placebo; the European Medicines Agency has indicated (draft qualification opinion) that the approach can be used for the primary analysis of phase 2 and 3 studies because it doesn’t introduce bias.
Also in April, OMass Therapeutics based in Oxford, UK raised $100 million in a series B financing to progress its early-stage pipeline of novel drugs in immunology and rare diseases towards the clinic. By integrating novel biochemistry techniques, next-generation native mass spectrometry, and custom chemistry, OMass’s drug-discovery platform OdyssION enables the investigation of proteins in their native state as found within the cell. This can lead to the discovery of new drugs against highly-validated, but previously intractable or inadequately drugged, membrane- and complex-bound proteins. The company’s drug-discovery programs include inflammatory bowel disease and orphan endocrine disorders.
To wrap spring up, Cambridge, UK based Be Biopharma closed a $130 million financing to pioneer engineered B cells, a new class of cellular medicines. B cells produce thousands of proteins per second, at constant levels over decades. Be Bio is harnessing this to produce autologous and allogeneic engineered B cell medicines (BeCMs) that have the potential to be durable, allogeneic, redosable and administered without toxic conditioning. The proceeds, which bring the total invested in the company to over $180 million, will progress BeCM platforms, and advance candidates targeting the treatment of oncology and rare disease.
