Japan-based oncology therapy developer Noile-Immune Biotech has raised ¥2.38bn ($21.9m) in a series C round backed by insurer Dai-ichi Life, pharmaceutical firm Binex, biotech firm Bigen and packaging plant operator Shibuya Kogyo.
Healthcare Innovation Investment and KD Bio Investment Fund also participated in the round.
Noile-Immune is working on chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies to treat solid tumours. Its lead drug candidate, NIB-101, is aimed at a type of glycolipid – which maintain the stability of the cell membrane – called GM2 which is expressed on certain types of cancer.
Binex and Bigen previously took part in a series B round of undisclosed size for Noile-Immune in March 2020, following a commitment of undisclosed size from Yamaguchi University’s tech transfer office Yamaguchi Technology Licensing Organisation in November 2018.
Bigen had already participated in a May 2018 round of unspecified size with medical researcher Sosei Heptares’ Sosei Corporate Venture Capital unit, financial services firm Saikyo Bank and DCI Partners, a vehicle for brokerage Daiwa Securities focusing on drug discovery and regenerative medicine developers.
The 2018 funding came in the wake of an undisclosed amount of funding from pharmaceutical firm Takeda the previous year.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu. The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
