AvenCell, a Watertown, MA-based clinical-stage cell therapy company, raised $112M in Series B funding.
The round was led by Novo Holdings. New investors F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures Japan, Piper Heartland Healthcare Capital and NYBC Ventures also participated alongside founding investor Blackstone Life Sciences. As part of this financing, Michael Bauer, Ph.D., Partner, Venture Investments, Novo Holdings, and Nihal Sinha, MB BChir, Partner, F-Prime Capital will join AvenCell’s Board of Directors.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate clinical validation of its proprietary Universal Switchable CAR-T cell therapy platform, for the treatment of a wide range of hematologic malignancies and auto-immune diseases
Led by CEO Andrew Schiermeier, AvenCell is a cell therapy company that targets difficult-to-treat cancers, with its lead programs focusing on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and additional programs targeting other hematological malignancies.
Current clinical assets utilizing AvenCell’s universal platform include AVC-101, a highly-differentiated autologous CAR-T cell candidate, and AVC-201, a CRISPR-engineered allogeneic CAR-T cell candidate. Both products target the antigen CD123 found on most Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) cells. The ongoing trials are investigating both products for the treatment of relapsed/refractory AML, which has a high unmet medical need, and very limited treatment options for patients. In addition, AvenCell has several pipeline candidates entering the clinic over the next two years.
The company has additional R&D and manufacturing operations in Dresden, Germany.
FinSMEs
22/10/2024