Shoreline Biosciences secured $140 million in financing to accelerate the growth of its induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-based immunotherapies and support the expansion of its manufacturing capabilities.
Shoreline Biosciences secured $140 million in financing to accelerate the growth of its induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-based immunotherapies and support the expansion of its manufacturing capabilities.
The financing round comes hot off the heels of two partnerships the company struck this summer valued at $4 billion. Shoreline entered into collaborations with Kite Pharmaceuticals, a Gilead Sciences company, and BeiGene. In the deal with BeiGene, the partnership will pair Shoreline’s iPSC NK cells with BeiGene’s discovery and clinical development expertise. The companies will jointly develop cell therapies for four designated therapeutic targets, with an option to expand the collaboration later. The partnership with Kite Pharma will focus initially on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) NK targets.
Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Shoreline, told BioSpace earlier this year that the industry is fast-moving toward the “era of cell therapy.” Shoreline is developing an off-the-shelf, targeted, allogeneic approach to natural killer (NK) and macrophage cell therapies. Looking back at the deals struck this summer and the latest financing round, Xanthopoulos expressed pride in the company’s progress over the past year. He said the company has enhanced its core technologies, advanced its preclinical programs, and expanded its headcount.
“With this financing and our corporate partnerships, Shoreline has now more than $300 million to continue building our pipeline of safe, effective and affordable cellular immunotherapies for both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies,” Xanthopoulos said in a statement.
The funds from the latest financing round will be used to advance the development of the company’s iPSC platform focused on next-generation NK cell and macrophage-cell therapies. The company also aims to advance potent and persistent NK cell-specific Chimeric Antigen Receptors and switchable CAR-NK cell engagers and macrophage-specific CARs to treat blood cancers, solid tumors, and other health conditions.
Ally Bridge Group led the financing round. Other participants included Eventide Asset Management, BeiGene, Irving Investors, Kingdon, NS Investment, Piper Heartland Healthcare Capital, and Superstring. Existing investors included Boxer Capital, BVF Partners, LP, Commodore Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, Kite Pharma, Stork Capital, Wedbush Healthcare Partners, and an undisclosed leading global investment firm.
In connection with the financing, Frank Yu, founder, CEO, and CIO of Ally Bridge Group, joined the Shoreline board of directors. After examining the capabilities of Shoreline’s assets, Yu said they are convinced that Shoreline will be a leading company in the cell therapy space.
“Having invested in—and followed closely for several years—the iPSC-derived NK cells-based therapeutics field which has made highly encouraging progress in the clinic, we are convinced of the true differentiation demonstrated by the Shoreline technology platform,” Yu said in a statement.
