US-based genome editing company Precision BioSciences raised $25.6m yesterday in an oversubscribed series A round featuring pharmaceutical companies Amgen and Baxter.
Amgen and Baxter, which invested through their Amgen Ventures and Baxter Ventures subsidiaries, were joined by investment firm VenBio, which led the round, Fidelity Bioscience, a subsidiary of financial services firm Fidelity Investment, Osage University Partners, Longevity Fund and two undisclosed public market investors.
Precision BioSciences is developing of products based on its proprietary genome editing technology, Arcus, which can remove, insert or modify DNA anywhere in the genome. The technology could ultimately be used in both healthcare and agriculture.
Matthew Kane, Precision’s chief executive said: “This financing will allow us to expand beyond our successful efforts to develop the leading next-gen genome editing platform and significantly accelerate the development of our genome-edited product pipeline.”
Robert Adelman, managing director of VenBio, and Ben Auspitz, a partner at Fidelity Biosciences, will join Precision’s board in conjunction with the funding.