Maryland Biotech Just Raised $85 Million to Begin Clinicals for its Intelligent Cell Therapy Platform
With new funding, Arcellx furthers its cell therapy platform intended to address new therapies in oncology and autoimmune disease
October 3, 2019
Arcellx, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has raised $85 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing. Proceeds will be used to advance the Company’s ARC-T + sparX programs, including clinical development of a bivalent BCMA-targeted cell therapy in multiple myeloma, and a CD123-targeted therapy in acute myeloid leukemia. The Series B will also fund earlier stage ARC-T + sparX programs for patients with solid tumors and diseases outside oncology.
Arcellx was recently featured as one of Five Companies That Are Changing the Landscape for Cell and Gene Therapy and is led by founder David Hilbert, PhD and a veteran team of top-caliber scientists and executives. Earlier this year Arcellx raised $27M in Series A funding from several high caliber investment firms that include NEA, Novo, Takeda Ventures and SR One.
According to the press release;
Participants in the Series B include both existing and new investors to Arcellx. New investors Aju IB and Quan Capital co-led the round, followed by Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, LG Technology Ventures, JVC Investment Partners, and certain funds managed by Clough Capital Partners, L.P. Existing investors Novo Holdings, S.R. One Limited, NEA and Takeda Ventures also participated in the financing.
Concurrent with the financing, Hugo Beekman, Partner at Aju IB, and Lewis (Rusty) Williams, M.D., Ph.D., Venture Partner at Quan Capital, have joined the Arcellx board of directors.
“The financial and strategic support from our investors allows Arcellx to accelerate development of a robust pipeline of ARC-T + sparX programs for patients in need,” commented David Hilbert, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Arcellx. “As impressive as conventional CART therapies have been, their safety and efficacy profiles are challenged by severe toxicities, high rates of relapse, and challenging target selection in the solid tumor setting. The ARC-T + sparX platform addresses these concerns by placing ARC-T cells under the control of one or more sparX proteins that uniquely determine how the ARC-T cells recognize tumor, and the speed with which ARC-T cells kill tumor. In the coming months we will begin clinical testing of our lead BCMA-targeted therapy in multiple myeloma.”
Rusty Williams, M.D., Ph.D., commented, “Arcellx has reached a positive inflection in its novel platform and pipeline with the potential to improve efficacy and safety. We are excited to support the company as it advances new cell therapies with the potential to deliver better outcomes for patients.”
Hugo Beekman, Partner at Aju IB, commented, “Arcellx has invented a differentiated cell therapy platform with ARC-T + sparX that allows simultaneous and sequential targeting of multiple tumor antigens. The ability of sparX proteins to reprogram the specificity of ARC-T cells has the potential to address the high incidence of tumor relapse, as well as the inherent diversity of tumor antigens expressed within solid tumors. The features of this platform, along with scalable and efficient manufacturing processes, are intended to facilitate the Company’s development of new therapies in oncology, and more broadly, in autoimmune disease and the transplant setting.”
Their vision is to provide cancer patients with adaptive gene cell therapies that are readily silenced, activated, and reprogrammed in order to combat the complexity of human disease. Their technology platform aims to achieve improved efficacy through the reprogramming of the immune system’s tumor-targeting receptors to address both newly diagnosed and relapsed cancers. Arcellx’s technology will extend to solid tumors as well as autoimmune indications.
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Over the past 11 years, Chris has grown BioBuzz into a respected brand that is recognized for its community building, networking events and news stories about the local biotech industry. In addition, he runs a Recruiting and Marketing Agency that helps companies attract top talent through a blended model that combines employer branding and marketing services together with a high powered recruiting solution.
