Date: 2016-01-12
Type of information: Financing round
Company: Tmunity (USA - PA)
Investors: Penn Medicine (USA - PA) Lilly Asia Ventures (China)
Amount: $10 million
Funding type: financing round
Planned used:
- Tmunity Therapeutics was co-founded in 2015 by the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn and the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The company will use proceeds to develop products to unleash the immunological potential of T cells to treat a wide range of diseases.
- Tmunity is developing novel T Cell Receptor (TCR) engineered T cells, regulatory T cells (Treg), and universal engineered T cell platforms that exhibit best-in-class control over T cell activation and direction in vivo, as well as proprietary technologies to activate, expand, and genetically engineer T cells from peripheral blood, cord blood and tumors. The company is also developing proprietary technologies to activate, expand, and genetically engineer T cells from peripheral blood, cord blood and tumors. These will rapidly advance toward the clinic personalized next-generation engineered T cell immunotherapies for cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune disease.
- Tmunity builds on the work of Penn’s Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (CCI), which has over 15 years of specialized regulatory experience in initiating first in human cell and gene therapy trials, with 25 investigational new drug applications opened. Many of Tmunity’s scientific co-founders are affiliated with Penn’s CCI and will engage with Tmunity as scientific advisors, including Carl H. June, MD, a T-cell therapy pioneer, who is also director of the CCI.
- Leading expertiseTmunity’s founding team includes preeminent T cell biology researchers and experts in clinical development, regulatory affairs, and manufacturing who have been at the forefront of advancing cell therapies as viable treatments for patients.
- • Anne Chew, PhD, co-founder and advisor, is the Executive Deputy Director of Penn’s Center for Cellular Immunotherapies. She has extensive experience in translational research and early phase development of investigational T cell and gene therapies.
- • Carl H. June, MD, co-founder and chief scientific advisor, is the Richard W. Vague Professor of Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and director of Translational Research in Penn’sAbramson Cancer Center. He is a cancer and HIV expert who is widely recognized as leader of the team responsible for the first successful and sustained demonstration of the use of engineered T cell therapy. He has received many accolades in recognition of this outstanding work, including the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, the AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology, and the Philadelphia Award.
- • Bruce Levine, PhD, co-founder and advisor, is the Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, and director of Penn’s Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility. He is a world leader in T cell engineering and has more than 20 years experience managing the development, manufacture, and testing of novel cell and gene therapies, including a number of first in human clinical trials.
- • James L. Riley, PhD, co-founder and advisor, is an associate professor of Microbiology and member of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on the cell biology of and therapeutic use of primary human T-cells. He has more than 20 years experience developing adoptive T cell therapies for HIV-1, cancer and autoimmune diseases.
- • Yangbing Zhao, MD, PhD, co-founder and advisor, is the director of the T-Cell Engineering Laboratory at the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. He has more than 20 years experience in T cell engineering and his seminal work, including developing highly efficient RNA electroporation of T lymphocytes, has directly led to multiple clinical trials of treating cancer patients with T cells engineered with TCR and CARs.
- • Bruce Blazar, MD, co-founder and advisor, is the Regent’s Professor of Pediatrics, Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute as well as the Center for Translational Medicine, and Children’s Cancer Research Fund Land Grant Chair in Pediatric Oncology at the University of Minnesota. Over more than 30 years, he has made seminal contributions in dissecting the mechanisms underlying graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD), a major complication of blood and marrow transplantation, and in developing new therapies to prevent and treat GVHD while preserving anti-tumor immunity. His studies have resulted in pivotal trials, bringing novel pharmaceutical agents, proteins, and cell therapies to the clinic.
Others:
- • On January 12, 2016, Tmunity Therapeutics announced that it is raising $10 Million in equity financing from Penn Medicine, the academic medical center of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), and Lilly Asia Ventures, a premier venture capital firm focused on making investments in the life sciences sector. The financing will represent the first capital investment for Penn Medicine in a company co-founded by Penn faculty and researchers.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Autoimmune diseases - Infectious diseases
Is general: Yes
