T-cell therapies are all the rage in immuno-oncology drug development but have not gained quite the same momentum in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases – unless recent financings are a sign of things to come. GentiBio, Inc. said on 11 August that it closed a $157m series A venture capital round to fund its development of engineered regulatory T-cell (Treg) therapies for autoimmune, inflammatory, alloimmune and allergic diseases.
Finance Watch: Big Bucks For T-regs In Autoimmune Diseases, Inflammation
GentiBio’s Mega-Round Follows Sonoma Bio’s $265m Financing
GentiBio closed a $157m series A venture capital round, while clinical trial innovator Reify Health raised a $220m series C and Neurelis secured $150m. Also, IPOs slowed in August, but Adagio and Eliem grossed $309.4m and $80m, respectively, and RNA firm Greenlight will go public in a $282m SPAC deal.
More from Financing
• By
Public Company Edition: Stock valuations are falling due to political, economic and regulatory uncertainty, resulting in fewer large public offerings, more alternative financings and cost cuts. Carisma, Tenaya, BioAtla, Arbutus, Nkarta, Alector and Adaptimmune announced layoffs.
• By
CEO Kris Elverum told Scrip about the start-up’s platform for editing RNA to correct genetic variants that cause harm and to reproduce healthy variants as a means of treating disease.
• By
The four-year-old firm said it plans to advance programs toward the clinic from the funding round, which comes just over a year after signing two major pharma partnerships.
• By
Private Company Edition: The latest group of drug developers to announce venture capital financings is remarkable for its geographic diversity, from Character Biosciences’ $93m series B round in the US to Augustine’s $85m series B in Belgium to a $29.2m series C for Aculys in Japan.
More from Business
• By
The US FDA approved anti-CD19 antibody Uplizna, from Amgen’s $27.8bn purchase of Horizon in 2023, for IgG4-related disease – a larger market than its original NMOSD indication.
• By
BeiGene’s Phase III ociperlimab joins the list of failed TIGIT inhibitors, as candidates from Roche, Merck & Co. and others have failed late-stage studies.
• By
It might be the beginning of the end for the orphan drugs party but there is still sales growth enjoyment to be had for the sector, whose star performers are now looking increasingly like mainstream drugs.