US-based cancer and autoimmune disease drug developer Celsius Therapeutics has raised $83m from investors including internet technology group Alphabet, medical care provider Heritage Provider Network and pharmaceutical firm Amgen.
Healthcare investment firm Casdin Capital led the round, which also featured life sciences-focused real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Third Rock Ventures, Amplitude Ventures, Catalio Capital, Co-Win Ventures, Fast Track Initiative, Section 32 and unnamed institutional investors.
Alphabet, Amgen and Alexandria participated in the round through GV, Amgen Ventures and Alexandria Venture Investments respectively.
Celsius has created a human tissue-based platform through which it is developing precision treatments for autoimmune disease and cancer. It revealed the funding alongside news it has selected its first drug candidate to enter clinical trials for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): CEL383.
The company said it has also chosen the first colorectal cancer clinical candidate through its collaboration with pharmaceutical group Servier, which has triggered a milestone payment from the corporate.
Tariq Kassum, president and chief executive of Celsius, said: “Our approach allows us to identify patient stratification hypotheses based on cell types and cell signatures, expanding the reach of precision medicine into new territory.
“We have now performed single cell RNA sequencing of over 1,000 clinical tissue samples using this platform technology and our dataset continues to grow rapidly.”
Celsius publicly launched in 2018 having raised $65m in a series A round led by Third Rock Ventures and backed by GV, Heritage Provider Network, Alexandria Venture Investments and Casdin Capital.
