Israeli-American company ImmPACT Bio, which is developing the next generation of cancer cell therapies, has announced the completion of a $111 million financing round. ImmPACT Bio was formed a merger between Israeli company Immpact, which was raised in the FutuRX biotechnology incubator, and US company Kalthera, which was founded in the sector in California.
FutuRX, headed by Erez Chimovits, is part of the Israel Innovation Authority's network of technological incubators, which is dedicated to drug development. The incubator franchisee is a consortium of the OrbiMed venture capital fund, Japanese pharmaceutical giant Takeda and Johnson & Johnson. OrbiMed participated in today's financing round, which was led by venBio Partners along with co-leads Foresite Capital and Decheng Capital along with Surveyor Capital and existing investors Novartis Venture Fund, RM Global Partners (RMGP), and Bukwang Pharmaceutical. Chimovits has until now been chairman.
ImmPACT's logic-gate based CAR T platforms address key biological challenges in treating cancer. ImmPACT Bio's technologies are specifically designed to address antigen escape, 'on-target - off-tumor' toxicities, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.
ImmPACT Bio has appointed Sumant Ramachandra as president and CEO. He said, "The US company brings with it two products, one of which is already in human clinic trials and one in advanced clinical trials." Both products are in the field of Tandem CAR,
He added, "But the Israeli product is even more interesting. It is based on research by Prof. Gidi Gross from the Migal Institute. Gross was one of the researchers who wrote the article on which Kite pharma was based, and which is considered one of the pioneers in the CAR sector, and was which was acquired by Gilead for $11.9 billion."
The company has two research centers in California and Israel and with the money raised it will build new research laboratories and a small production plant for therapies for clinical trials. The company has 23 employees and aims to increase the number to 65 by the end of the year.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 20, 2022.
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