The T-Cell therapy developer, based on research at Baylor College of Medicine, has received funding in a Gilead Sciences-backed series B round led by Fidelity Management and Research.
AlloVir, a US-based cell therapy developer spun out of Baylor College of Medicine, has received $120m in a series B round that included pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences.
The round was led by financial services and investment group Fidelity Management and Research, and also featured cell and gene therapy company builder ElevateBio, F2 Ventures, Redmile Group, Invus, EcoR1 Capital, Samsara BioCapital, and Leerink Partners Co-investment Fund.
Founded in 2013 and formerly known as ViraCyte, AlloVir is developing cell therapies that focus on restoring natural immunity against virus-associated diseases in patients with severely weakened immune systems.
The company’s lead product, Viralym-M (ALVR105), is being developed to combat six viral diseases: BK virus, cytomegalovirus, adenovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus 6 and JC virus. Its second T-cell therapy, ALVR106, targets respiratory viruses like respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, parainfluenza virus and human metapneumovirus.
The spinout’s technology was developed in Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Cell and Gene Therapy by Ann Leen, professor of paediatrics, and Juan Vera, associate professor of medicine.
AlloVir is the first portfolio company to be revealed by ElevateBio, a holding company that recently launched with $150m to build cell and gene therapy startups.
Morana Jovan-Embiricos, managing partner at F2 Ventures, has joined the company’s board of directors in connection with the round, while Diana Brainard, senior vice-president of HIV and emerging viral infections at Gilead Sciences, has taken a board observer position.
Leen, who now acts as chief scientific officer of AlloVir, said: “We are excited to now be building AlloVir as an ElevateBio portfolio company.
“This partnership provides AlloVir with fully integrated bench-to-bedside capabilities to accelerate the development and commercialization of our allogeneic, off-the-shelf, multi-virus specific T-cell immunotherapies.”
The company landed $30m in funding from an unnamed investor in September 2018, according to a regulatory filing. That investment came 13 months after it received a $8.9m grant from Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
