China-headquartered oncology drug developer Gracell Biotechnologies raised $100m on Wednesday in a series C round that included Lilly Asia Ventures, a corporate venturing vehicle for pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly.
Investment manager Wellington Management, healthcare investment firm OrbiMed and venture capital firm Morningside Ventures co-led the round, which also featured Vivo Capital, Temasek and Kington Capital’s King Star Med vehicle.
Gracell is working on cell therapies to treat cancer that will utilise chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells, an approach that involves forming an artificial T-cell receptor for immunotherapy treatments.
The company is concentrating on haematologic malignancies and solid tumours. Its lead drug candidates are GC012F, which is in a phase 1 clinical trial for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, and GC027, which is in a phase 1 trial for relapsed or refractory T cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Temasek had led the company’s $85m series B round in February 2019, investing together with Lilly Asia Ventures, Chengdu Miaoji, Kington Capital and King Star Capital. It also identified OrbiMed as an existing backer in the latest round.
William Wei Cao, Gracell’s founder, chairman and chief executive, said: “We are very pleased to expand our investor base with support from a high calibre consortium.
“Our passion is to bring transformative CAR-T cell therapies to a broader group of patients by developing products that are efficacious and can be made widely available.”
