Poseida Therapeutics Inc. may have one of the first BCMA-targeting chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies approved in the US for multiple myeloma, which is why investors were eager to invest in the initial public offering the company proposed in January. But when the IPO was waylaid by the US government shutdown, other options for funding its development programs emerged.
San Diego-based Poseida believes its technology lends itself to safer and more persistent CAR-T therapies. The firm closed a $142m Series C venture capital round on April 22, with $75m from Novartis AG, a pioneer in the CAR-T space with its first-in-class CD19-targeting leukemia and lymphoma treatment Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel)