Robust Investment in Greater Philadelphia Region’s Cell and Gene Therapy Sector Continued in the First Quarter of 2021 PHILADELPHIA (April 8, 2021) – The robust venture capital funding the Greater [….]
The Discovery Labs’ 2.4 million square foot site in King of Prussia, PA provides all the necessary ingredients to accelerate speed to market for cell and gene therapy innovators. The Center for Breakthrough Medicines is a cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for plasmid DNA, viral vectors, and cellular therapy products and is located on-site.
Gyroscope Therapeutics, a British gene therapy company that has U.S. operations in King of Prussia, has raised $148 million in venture capital funding.
The five-year-old company has now raised about $265 million over three funding rounds since its inception.
Gyroscope’s Series C financing was led by Forbion’s Growth Opportunities Fund. Other investors are Sofinnova Investments, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Tetragon Financial Group Limited, an undisclosed healthcare focused fund, Fosun Pharma, Cambridge Innovation Capital and founding investor Syncona.
The five-year-old company plans to use the proceeds from the stock sale to advance the development of its lead gene therapy candidate, GT005, a potential treatment for geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration.
As some are now calling it, the greater Philadelphia region, or ‘Cellecon Valley, is garnering a lot of attention these days as a rapidly emerging Biopharma cluster, earning a defining spot among the top 10 clusters in the US.
Strength through a diversified economy likely helped the region have its second-best quarter ever for venture capital deals, per PACT’s latest trends report.
Its Women’s History Month and being on the heels of Black History Month, BioBuzz is highlighting three successful black women in industry to straddle the importance of both.
Life Science Cares Philadelphia launched Project Onramp Philadelphia, a program aimed at connecting economically disadvantaged college students with paid summer internships at life science companies based in the area.
Philadelphia, the birthplace of cell and gene therapy, is home to a number of companies focused on developing multiple treatment options for rare diseases, those that affect less than 200,000 people in the United States.
With an established, yet continually growing market, Philadelphia is ranked among Boston, San Francisco and others on Newmark’s 2020 year-end report.
The folks at the nonprofit University City Science Center recognize this. That’s why, last summer, they launched BULB: Building and Understanding Lab Basics. It’s an intensive, two-week program open to any Philadelphia resident with a GED or high school diploma who’s had some kind of workforce experience. Its mission: to develop more opportunities for Philadelphians…
