US-based cancer immunotherapy developer Immunitas Therapeutics has raised $39m in a series A round co-led by subsidiaries of pharmaceutical company Novartis and chemical and pharmaceuticals producer Bayer.
Novartis Venture Fund and Leaps by Bayer were joined by M Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm Merck Group, as well as drug development firm Evotec, Alexandria Venture Investments – part of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities – and unnamed additional investors.
Founded earlier this year, Immunitas is advancing antibody candidates being developed to treat cancer using insights into the tumour microenvironment generated from its genomics platform, which extracts genetic information specific to single cellular samples.
The startup is looking to differentiate itself by optimising initial dissections of human samples, in theory reducing the risk of misleading results from preclinical trials.
The series A funds will help prepare for clinical studies on the company’s first slate of antibodies. It is building on research led by Aviv Regev, professor of biology and core member at Broad Institute and an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Immunitas was formed by life sciences venture capital firm Longwood Fund, whose principal Lee Hachigan has been appointed company president.
Jürgen Eckhardt, head of Leaps by Bayer, said: “One of today’s biggest challenges in oncology is how to efficiently and effectively move preclinical research into human therapies while avoiding the false signals often seen in animal models.
“The scientific founders of Immunitas have elegantly solved this problem by dissecting the biology of immune cells in human tumours directly.”