September 25, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Adaptimmune Limited, with offices in Oxford, UK and Philadelphia, Penn., announced today the completion of a $140 million Series A financing round. The company was founded in 2008. The Oxford facilities focus on R&D and the U.S. facilities focus on clinical studies. The company’s technology revolves around the use of reprogramming the body’s T cells to target cancerous or infected cells.
The company indicates it will use the money raised in the financing round to proceed with internal clinical programs for multiple cancer indications. The company’s T-cell receptor (TCR) technology is being used to target the cancer testis antigen NY-ESO-1. In June 2014 Adaptimmune inked a deal with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) worth $350 million to develop cancer drugs. The deal was expected to be spread out over seven years subject to various developmental milestones. Additional payments would be linked to sales royalties and commercialization milestones.
Adaptimmune’s R&D utilizes proprietary T cell receptor engineering technology that was co-developed with its sister company Immunocore Ltd., formerly Avidex/MediGene. Immunocore and Adaptimmune’s technology allows the company to engineer high affinity T cell receptors and link them to an antibody fragment, anti-CD3, which then stimulates the immune system to target whatever cells they have programmed them to attack. The technology shows significant promise for treatment of cancer and viral diseases.
The financing round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The University of Oxford and other early investors were also involved. New investors 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.
“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,” said James Noble, Adaptimmune’s CEO in a press release. “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.”
In addition to the financing, the company announced changes to its Board of Directors. Named as non-executive directors: David Mott, NEA General Partner; Ali Behbahani, an NEA Partner; Peter Thompson, a Private Equity Partner at OrbiMed. Joining as an independent industry representative is Elliott Sigal, former Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Bristol Myers-Squibb.
“We are very pleased to be leading this round in Adaptimmune against a backdrop of increasing global interest in the immuno-oncology field,” said David Mott in a press release. “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.”
