Intellia Therapeutics, a US-based company specialising in gene-editing, closed a $70m series B round yesterday featuring pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
The round was led by OrbiMed Healthcare Fund Management and featured financial services conglomerate Fidelity Management and Research Company, Janus Capital Management, Foresite Capital, Sectoral Asset Management, EcoR1 Capital, Atlas Venture and a range of unnamed mutual funds and healthcare investors.
Launched in November 2014 by biotechnology company Caribou Biosciences and venture capital firm Atlas Venture, Intellia has licensed Caribou technology named Crispr-Cas9 which serves as the basis for treatments that target and repair genetic defects.
Intellia plans to use the series B funding to support development of its pipeline, expand its gene editing and delivery platforms, and broaden its intellectual property portfolio. Novartis previously co-led a $15m series A round with Atlas Venture for Intellia at the time of its launch.
Nessan Bermingham, founder and chief executive of Intellia, said: “Intellia is delighted to welcome this group of specialist, long term, healthcare investors to our existing syndicate.
“We feel this financing reflects the strong support for our business model and positions us to rapidly advance our company and strategy.”