US-based immuno-oncology therapy developer Immunitas Therapeutics has raised $58m in a series B round featuring corporates Bayer, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Novartis, Dong-A ST, Merck Group, Ono Pharmaceutical and Evotec.
Venture capital firm Agent Capital led the round, in which pharmaceutical firms Novartis, Ono Pharmaceutical, Merck Group and Dong-A ST participated through Novartis Venture Fund, Ono Venture Investment, M Ventures and NS Investment, respectively.
Pharmaceutical and chemical group Bayer’s Leaps by Bayer unit also took part, while Alexandria Venture Investments invested on behalf of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Drug discovery services provider Evotec invested directly.
Mirae Asset, 120 Capital Management, Solasta Ventures, Medical Excellence Capital, Longwood Fund, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program and American Cancer Society’s impact fund, BrightEdge, filled out the list of investors.
Founded by Longwood Fund in 2019, Immunitas has built a single-cell sequencing platform to develop targeted therapies for cancer and other diseases.
The company will use the series B funding to advance its lead programme IMT-009, a potential treatment of solid tumours and haematological cancers, into clinical trials. Immunitas is planning to submit its first investigational new drug application for IMT-009 in 2022.
The series B round has increased the business’ overall funding to $97m. It had received $39m in a series A round in 2019 that was co-led by Novartis Venture Fund and Leaps by Bayer, and included M Ventures, Evotec, Alexandria Venture Investments and unnamed additional backers.