July 24, 2023
In a significant stride towards revolutionizing cancer treatment, Verismo Therapeutics, a clinical-stage CAR T company and a spinout from the University of Pennsylvania, has announced a $17 million second pre-Series A financing round. In what has been a mild year for investment, Verismo joins just a handful of companies out of Philadelphia who have raised venture capital this year.
Altogether, eight companies have raised a combined $341 million in venture capital in 2023:
- ArriVent BioPharma closed a $155 million Series B in March of this year.
- Navy Yard-based VintaBio raised $64 million to bring their gene and cell therapy CDMO out of stealth mode.
- In January, Palvella Therapeutics closed a $38 million Series D.
- Cancer therapeutics company, Synnovation Therapeutics (based in Wilmington) raised $25 million.
- Verismo Therapeutics raises $17M pre-Series A for solid tumor targeting CAR T trials, however; in February of this year they raised another $7M pre-Series A bringing their 2023 total to $24 million.
- Venatorx Pharmaceuticals closed $15 million convertible note to further their antibacterial and antiviral drugs designed to treat multi-drug-resistant bacterial infections.
- Philly-based NeuExcell Therapeutics raised a $15+ million Series Pre-A+ million for their neurodegenerative gene therapy platform.
- Geneos Therapeutics raised a $5 million Series A3 round in April for their personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines (PTCV).
In the biggest deal of the year, ArriVent’s $155 million will be used to support pivotal Phase 3 and additional studies with the Company’s lead product candidate furmonertinib – a highly brain penetrant, mutant-specific EGFR kinase inhibitor – as well as the continued expansion of its pipeline.
Verismo is currently holding the number five spot at $24 million raised this year. The infusion of funds will propel the advancement of their clinical trial for SynKIR™-110, their KIR-CAR T cell immunotherapy candidate specifically designed to target solid tumors. Additionally, it will accelerate the pre-clinical development of SynKIR™-310, a promising KIR-CAR T cell immunotherapy therapeutic aimed at combating blood cancers.
The recent funding round was co-led by industry giants DongKoo Bio, HLB Innovation, and HLB, underscoring the immense potential of Verismo’s cutting-edge CAR T. With this latest financial boost, Verismo has successfully secured a total of $50 million in financing since its inception in 2020.
While the investment climate has been mild, Philly still ranks 5th in deal total according to an article in Technical.ly Media. There is tremendous science still happening in Philadelphia and good science finds a way to get funded, so there may still be some big surprises in store for the second half of the year.
