Pfizer Ventures and Penn Medicine both contributed to an oversubscribed series A round for University of Pennslyvania spinout Interius Biotherapeutics.
US-based gene therapy developer Interius Biotherapeutics pocketed $76m in a series A round backed by pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and academic medical centre Penn Medicine today.
Cormorant Asset Management and Fairmount Funds co-led the round, which also attracted University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Osage University Partners, Bain Capital Life Sciences, RA Capital Management, Longwood Fund, Logos Capital and Quan Capital.
Tellus Bioventures, Agent Capital, Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, Knollwood and American Cancer Society’s impact investment fund BrightEdge filled out the round. Pfizer took part through corporate venturing arm Pfizer Ventures.
Interius Biotherapeutics is working on cell-specific gene delivery technology to generate CAR T cell treatments in vivo. The approach has applications in a range of areas, including immuno-oncology.
The spinout advances research led by Saar Gill at UPenn’s Center for Cellular Immunotherapies.
Interius has not specified what it intends to do with the money. Tomas Kiselak of Fairmount Funds and Ben Lund of Bain Capital Life Sciences will join the board of directors.
The company previously raised $1.6m in funding in April 2020 from private investors.
Interius identified Tellus Bioventures as its lead founding investor in its series A announcement, which also revealed UPenn, Penn Medicine, Agent Capital, Mark Foundation, Knollwood and BrightEdge as existing backers. It is not clear when or how much they invested.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
