US-based immunotherapy developer Turnstone Biologics has raised $80m in series D funding from investors including Takeda Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm Takeda.
Investment manager PFM Health Sciences and venture capital firm Point72 co-led the round, which included investment and financial services group Fidelity’s F-Prime Capital unit and fellow existing backers Versant Ventures, OrbiMed, Sectoral Asset Management, Sixty Degree Capital, Brace Pharma Capital and Teralys Capital.
The round also featured new investors Eventide Asset Management, Citadel’s Surveyor Capital subsidiary, Ridgeback Capital Investments, CaaS Capital, JM Family Enterprises, Northleaf Capital Partners, 404 Bio and an undisclosed investor.
Incubated by healthcare-focused startup incubator operator Facit in 2015, Turnstone is working on viral cancer immunotherapies through two platforms designed to activate innate tumour immunity response.
An oncolytic virus candidate dubbed RIVAL-01 is undergoing phase 1 and 2A clinical trials while the company is filing an investigational new drug application for a potential tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy called TIDAL-01 with the US Food and Drug Administration later this year.
Takeda committed $120m to Turnstone in the form of cash, near-term milestone payments and future equity funding through a licence agreement in December 2019.
OrbiMed led Turnstone’s $41.4m series B round in 2016, investing alongside F-Prime Capital, Facit and Versant Ventures, the last of which a $11.3m series A round for the company the year before that also featured Facit.
Sammy Farah, president and CEO of Turnstone, said: “Turnstone is developing next-generation medicines in two of the most clinically validated fields of immunotherapy for solid tumours.
“This oversubscribed financing will allow us to advance our vision to benefit millions of cancer patients underserved by current treatment options.”
