Date: 2014-09-25
Type of information: Series A financing round
Company: Adaptimmune (UK)
Investors: New Enterprise Associates (NEA) (USA - MD) OrbiMed Advisors (USA - NY) Wellington Management Company, LLP (USA - MA), Fidelity Biosciences (USA - MA), Foresite Capital Management (USA - CA), Ridgeback Capital Management (USA - TX), Novo A/S (Denmark), QVT (USA - NY), Rock Springs Capital (USA - MD), venBio Select (USA - CA), Merlin Nexus (USA - NY), University of Oxford (UK)
Amount: $104 million (€81.4 million)
Funding type: series A financing round
Planned used: Adaptimmune plans to use the proceeds from the Series A financing to advance the company’s internal programmes into the clinic in multiple cancer indications. Using its T-cell receptor (TCR) engineering technology, Adaptimmune has created TCRs which are deployed to target the cancer testis antigen, NY-ESO-1, as well as other targets. In June the company announced that it had entered into a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with GSK covering an option on the NY-ESO-1 clinical programme. Adaptimmune is currently running trials across the United States in multiple myeloma, melanoma, sarcoma and ovarian cancer.
Others: * On September 25, 2014, Adaptimmune, a UK leading biotechnology company focused on the use of T-cell therapy to treat cancer and infectious disease, announced the completion of a $104 million Series A financing round. The oversubscribed round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and additional new investors participating included OrbiMed Advisors LLC, Wellington Management Company, LLP, Fidelity Biosciences, Foresite Capital Management, Ridgeback Capital Management, Novo A/S, QVT, Rock Springs Capital, venBio Select and Merlin Nexus. Existing investors participating included the University of Oxford and others. Adaptimmune has also announced changes to its Board. David Mott, NEA General Partner and head of healthcare; Dr Ali Behbahani, a Partner in NEA’s healthcare team, and Dr Peter Thompson, a Private Equity Partner at OrbiMed, have been appointed as non-executive directors. They will serve alongside existing Chairman, Dr Jonathan Knowles, and Chief Executive Officer, James Noble. The Board is further strengthened by Dr Elliott Sigal, former Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Bristol Myers-Squibb, who joins as an independent industry representative.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
