Adaptimmune Limited, a biotechnology company focused on the use of T-cell therapy to treat cancer and infectious disease, has completed a USD104 million Series A financing round.
The oversubscribed round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and additional new investors participating included OrbiMed Advisors, Wellington Management Company, Fidelity Biosciences, Foresite Capital Management, Ridgeback Capital Management, Novo A/S, QVT, Rock Springs Capital, venBio Select and Merlin Nexus.
Existing investors participating included the University of Oxford and others.
Adaptimmune plans to use the proceeds from the Series A financing to advance the company’s internal programmes into the clinic in multiple cancer indications.
Using its unique T-cell receptor (TCR) engineering technology, Adaptimmune has created TCRs which are deployed to target the cancer testis antigen, NY-ESO-1, as well as other targets. In June the company entered into a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with GlaxoSmithKline covering an option on the NY-ESO-1 clinical programme. Adaptimmune is currently running trials across the US in multiple myeloma, melanoma, sarcoma and ovarian cancer.
Adaptimmune has also made changes to its board. David Mott, NEA general partner and head of healthcare, Dr Ali Behbahani, a partner in NEA’s healthcare team, and Dr Peter Thompson, a private equity partner at OrbiMed, have been appointed as non-executive directors. They will serve alongside existing chairman Dr Jonathan Knowles and chief executive officer James Noble. Dr Elliott Sigal, former chief scientific officer and executive vice president of Bristol Myers-Squibb, joins as an independent industry representative.
“We are delighted to secure this strong financial support from some of the most prestigious and highly regarded biotechnology investment groups in the US, led by NEA,” says Noble. “Their commitment, and the perspective and experience of our new board members, will be invaluable as we build the company up and accelerate the development of our own pipeline of clinical programmes.”
“We are very pleased to be leading this round in Adaptimmune against a backdrop of increasing global interest in the immuno-oncology field,” David Mott. “We look forward to working closely with the company to rapidly progress the development of its innovative research pipeline in TCR T-cell therapy, which offers an opportunity to bring potentially breakthrough cancer treatments to patients.”
