US-based oncology therapy developer Triumvira Immunologics has closed a $55m series A round co-led by pharmaceutical and agricultural product manufacturer Bayer through its Leaps by Bayer unit.
The round was co-led by venture capital firm Northpond Ventures and also featured drug discovery services firm Viva Biotech, Oceanpine Capital and existing investors including investment bank Bloom Burton and Centre for Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy (C3i).
Founded in 2015, Triumvira is working on a technology platform that will engineer T-cells designed to fight cancer. T-cells ordinarily destroy harmful cells but are frequently unable to identify cancerous cells.
The company aims to create T-cell cancer drugs that are more affordable than current options on the market. It will put the series A proceeds into advancing multiple product candidates for solid tumours and haematologic malignancies into clinical studies.
Triumvira was co-founded by Bloom Burton and Jonathan Bramson, a professor in McMaster University’s department of pathology and molecular medicine.
Juergen Eckhardt, managing director of Leaps by Bayer, will take a board seat at Triumvira, as will Jak Knowles, vice-president of venture investments for health. Northpond Ventures will be represented on the board by principal Shaan Gandhi.
Eckhardt said: “We are very excited about the potential of Triumvira’s platform. It represents a unique opportunity in the development of next-generation cell therapies that promise to address previously incurable cancers.”
