Access Biotechnology, the life sciences investment arm of conglomerate Access Industries, co-led an $80m series B round for Pandion Therapeutics, a US-based developer of autoimmune disease treatments, on Wednesday.
Investment firm Boxer Capital led the round, which included Roche Venture Fund and SR One, the respective corporate venture capital vehicles for pharmaceutical firms Roche and GlaxoSmithKline respectively.
RA Capital, OrbiMed, Polaris Partners, Versant Ventures, JDRF T1D Fund and BioInnovation Capital filled out the round. Access Biotechnology principal Dan Becker is joining Pandion’s board of directors with Christopher Fuglesang from Boxer Capital.
Pandion will put the funding into advancing its lead drug candidate, PT101, which is in phase 1 development, in addition to expanding staff numbers and further development of its modular drug design platform.
Roche Venture Fund, Polaris Partners and Versant Ventures co-led Pandion’s $58m series A round in January 2018, investing with SR One and BioInnovation Capital, before JDRF T1D Fund added an undisclosed amount in December the same year.
Rahul Kakkar, Pandion’s CEO, said: “This financing from a world-class syndicate of life science investors speaks to the strong potential of our pipeline of modular proteins and bifunctional antibodies for autoimmune diseases.
“With their support, we are well positioned to continue to advance our lead clinical-stage IL-2 mutein program, PT101, and execute on our strategy to develop new therapies for areas of high unmet need.”
