US-based oncology drug developer TScan Therapeutics emerged from stealth on Wednesday with $48m in funding from investors including internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet and pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
The funding included a recent series B round of undisclosed size. The company’s investors include Alphabet unit GV and Novartis subsidiaries Novartis Venture Fund and Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research (NIBR) as well as Bessemer Venture Partners and Longwood Fund.
TScan is developing cancer therapies that are designed to reprogram a patient’s own T cells to recognise and fight both liquid and solid tumours, as well as autoimmune and infectious diseases.
The company was spun out of Harvard University and its technology is based on work by Stephen Elledge, professor of genetics and of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
TScan’s leadership team includes David Southwell, the former president and chief executive officer of Inotek Pharmaceuticals; Gavin MacBeath, former chief scientific officer of AbPro; and Henry Rath, former senior vice-president of corporate development at Seres Therapeutics.
Southwell said: “We are pleased to welcome Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research to our series B financing, as they join the strong core of investors from our series A round of financing.”