Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Secures $55 Million in Oversubscribed Series C Financing
Investor Syndicate Includes Leading Biotech And Mutual Funds
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing safer and more effective cellular immunotherapies, today announced the successful completion of a $55M Series C financing.
The funding will be used to expand the clinical evaluation of Bellicum’s stem cell transplant, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell and cancer vaccine product candidates in a variety of blood and solid tumor cancers, and in nonmalignant genetic diseases.
Eleven new investors participated in the round, including funds managed by RA Capital Management, LLC, Perceptive Advisors, LLC, Jennison Associates LLC (on behalf of certain clients), Sabby Capital, LLC, Ridgeback Capital Management, venBio Select, Redmile Group, LLC, AJU IB Investment and others. All of the Company’s major current investors, including AVG Ventures and Remeditex Ventures, participated in the financing. The Series C brings the total capital raised since inception to $107 million.
“This group of leading biotech investors recognizes the potential of our cell signaling platform for achieving the full promise of cell therapy,” said Bellicum CEO Tom Farrell. “With this financing, we’re well positioned to accelerate the clinical development of BPX-501 in leukemia/lymphoma and in nonmalignant genetic diseases, and to hit important development milestones with our CAR T cell and DeCIDe cancer vaccine programs.”
Joe Edelman, CEO of Perceptive Advisors, commented: “We are excited to become investors in Bellicum. The ability to exert in vivo control over therapeutic cells has the potential to improve the safety and efficacy of current adoptive cell therapy applications, as well as expand their use into previously unaddressable indications.”
Jefferies LLC served as Bellicum’s exclusive placement agent.
About Bellicum Pharmaceuticals
Bellicum is developing safer and more effective cell therapies to treat cancers and other chronic and life-threatening diseases. The Company’s proprietary cell-based therapies incorporate either the CaspaCIDe® self-destruct switch to enable the rapid elimination of cell treatments that become toxic, or the DeCIDe® activation switch for controlled activation of dendritic cells to improve efficacy and safety. Cells engineered with either CaspaCIDe or DeCIDe are activated via infusion with the small molecule drug AP1903. Bellicum is advancing clinical programs in cellular transplants to reduce or eliminate Graft versus Host Disease, and in prostate cancer with a potentially more potent immunotherapy. The Company’s product discovery group is also working on novel technologies for controlled expansion and activation of other cell types, including CAR T cells, TCRs and TILs.
For more information, please visit www.bellicum.com.
Contacts
Investors:
Pete Rahmer, 646-378-2973
prahmer@troutgroup.com
or
Media:
Amy Bonanno, 646-513-3117
abonanno@bmccommunications.com
or
Brad Miles, 646-513-3125
bmiles@bmccommunications.com
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