Pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has disclosed a significant investment in US-based immunotherapy developer Lyell Immunopharma, which disclosed $493m in series C funding in a securities filing earlier this month.
The corporate’s participation was disclosed in its annual report, which stated that it had spent £258m ($320m at current exchange rates) on equity investments during 2019, “primarily relating to Lyell Immunopharma”.
The annual report stated that GSK owned a 15% stake in Lyell with a fair value of approximately $203m as of the end of 2019, valuing it at $1.35bn.
The deal would have been separate to the series C, which the filing stated was opened and closed this month. Lyell has not disclosed the identity of the 10 participants in the round.
Founded in 2018, Lyell is working on cell-based immunotherapies intended to treat diseases by modulating T cells – an important part of the immune system response – to prevent or reverse their differentiation into dysfunctional states.
GSK formed agreed a five-year collaboration partnership with Lyell in October 2019 that involves them working together to develop cell therapies for cancer treatments, applying Lyell’s technology to GSK’s cell therapy pipeline.
The company has received a total of $851m in funding according to venture capital data provider CB Insights but has not revealed details of any other investors.
Lyell also took part in a $40m series A round for Sonoma Biotherapeutics in February this year and a $45m series E round for fellow immunotherapy developer Eureka Therapeutics earlier this month.
