Date: 2016-01-27
Type of information: Series A financing round
Company: Adicet Bio (USA - CA)
Investors: OrbiMed (USA - NY) Pontifax (Israel) Novartis Venture Fund (Switzerland)
Amount: $51 million
Funding type: series A financing round
Planned used:
- Adicet Bio is a privately held, pre-clinical stage biotechnology company engaged in the design and development of cutting-edge immunotherapies for cancer and other disease indications, with a focus on novel universal immune cell therapies (uICT). Adicet Bio also announced the acquisition of Applied Immune Technologies, an Israel-based company that develops immunotherapies directed to the intracellular proteome.
- Adicet was founded by Aya Jakobovits and OrbiMed. Previously, Dr. Jakobovits served as the President and founding CEO of Kite Pharma. Before joining Kite Pharma, she served as Executive Vice President, Head of Research and Development at Agensys, which became an affiliate of Astellas Pharma. in a deal valued at up to $537 million. Before its acquisition, she served as Agensys’ Senior Vice President, Technology and Corporate Development and Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to Agensys, Dr. Jakobovits served as the Director, Discovery Research and Principal Scientist at Abgenix, which was spun out of Cell Genesys and based on the XenoMouse® technology developed under her leadership. Abgenix was acquired by Amgen Inc. for $2.2 billion.
- AIT specializes in generating and developing T-Cell Receptor-Like (“TCRL™”) antibodies with high affinity and specificity to disease-specific intracellular peptides presented on the cell surface by the major histocompatibility complex. AIT also established Epitarget™, a proprietary technology to identify and validate novel disease-specific peptide targets. AIT technology is based on work by Prof. Yoram Reiter, a world leader in the research of immunotherapies directed to the intracellular proteome. AIT will continue its operations in Israel as Adicet’s wholly-owned subsidiary.
Others:
- • On January 27, 2016, Adicet Bio announced that it closed a $51 million series A financing. The financing was led by OrbiMed and also included Novartis Venture Fund and Pontifax. Following the financing and acquisition, the Adicet Board of Directors will include Jonathan Silverstein and Carl Gordon, General Partners and Co-Heads of Global Private Equity at OrbiMed, Aya Jakobovits, Florent Gros, Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund, and Erez Chimovits, Managing Director at OrbiMed Israel.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Immunological diseases
Is general: Yes
