Adaptive Biotechnologies secures $105m

US-based oncology firm Adaptive Biotechnologies has secured a $105m investment in combined series C and D rounds, both led by US-based Viking Global Investors, a privately owned hedge fund sponsor. The series C round consists of $20m, $5m of which came from Viking Global Investors, while the series D round consists of $100m. Viking Global Investors is also taking an advisory position on Adaptive’s board.

Previously, Adaptive Biotechnologies was awarded a $2.53m grant by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 2013, through the US government’s Small Business Innovation Research program. The company, spun out from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in 2009, focuses on deciphering the building blocks of the body’s response to cancer and other illnesses.

It plans on using the money to build out its sales force and deepen its research, anticipating to nearly double in size by year-end, from a current 50 employees. It will also market their two products immunoSEQ, for research-only immunosequencing, and clonoSEQ, for monitoring relapses of patients with certain blood cancers. Finally, it will advance development of quanTILfy, a screening test for certain cancer immunotherapies.

The round marks the second large round for Fred Hutchinson-linked spin-outs after Juno Therapeutics launched in December last year, and raised $145m in total for its oncology therapies.  

Adaptive founder and CEO, Chad Robins, said: “We are honored to have been given the opportunity by Viking to further grow our world class company and state-of-the-art technology so we can better understand, diagnose and monitor the immune response in patients living with diseases like cancer and autoimmune disorders.”