USA – Interius BioTherapeutics, a Philadelphia, PA-based preclinical stage gene therapy company developing a paradigm-shifting platform for in vivo cell-specific gene delivery, raised $76m in Series A financing.
The round was co-led by Cormorant Asset Management and Fairmount Funds, and joined by Bain Capital Life Sciences, Pfizer Ventures, RA Capital Management, Longwood Fund, Logos Capital, Osage University Partners and Quan Capital. All existing investors participated, including lead founding investor Tellus BioVentures, the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine, Agent Capital, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, Knollwood, and BrightEdge, the American Cancer Society’s impact investment fund. In conjunction with the funding, Tomas Kiselak of Fairmount Funds and Ben Lund of Bain Capital Life Sciences will join the Interius Board of Directors.The company intends to use the funds to expand its development efforts. Co-founded by Dr. Saar Gill, physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Bruce Peacock, a renowned biotech veteran, and led by Phil Johnson, MD, CEO, Interius is initially focused on treating hematologic malignancies by leveraging its novel gene delivery platform to generate chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells directly in vivo. This therapeutic approach bypasses the need for ex vivo cell manipulations and the potentially toxic pre-conditioning chemotherapy required for standard CAR T-cell treatments. Exploiting its versatile platform, Interius is also developing applications beyond immuno-oncology that address diseases not amenable to current gene therapy modalities.18/05/2021
