Pharmaceutical firm Celgene has completed a $30m investment in NantCell, a US-based immuno-oncology subsidiary of healthcare technology producer NantHealth.
Celgene’s investment increased its overall investment in NantCell to $105m and its ownership stake to 2.8%, valuing the company at $4bn.
NantCell is developing treatments and vaccines designed to use the body’s immune system to treat cancerous tumours as an alternative to high-dose chemotherapy.
The company has seven biomolecules in phase 1 clinical testing, four in phase 2 trials and three in registration clinical trials, in addition to a 28-strong pipeline of fusion protein, mRNA, cytokine and monoclonal antibody-based preclinical drug candidates.
NantCell was launched by NantHealth, itself part of Patrick Soon-Shiong’s larger NantWorks group, in 2015 following an initial $75m investment by Celgene. It is working with NantHealth as well as another NantWorks business, cellular cancer therapy developer NantKwest.
Celgene, which recently agreed to a $74bn acquisition by peer Bristol-Myers Squibb, paid $3.6bn in 2010 to purchase Abraxis BioScience, the developer of a cancer drug called Abraxane which Soon-Shiong had discovered.
Mark Alles, Celgene’s chairman and CEO, said: “Celgene invested in NantCell since its inception in 2015 and we are excited to extend this partnership today with the significant clinical progress [Soon-Shiong] has made in developing cytokines and bispecific proteins in the ongoing quest to conquer this disease.”