Big Deal: Juno Therapeutics

If funding is anything to go by, then there is one biotech which stands a better chance at curing cancer than anyone else: Juno Therapeutics. The joint venture between Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and New York City-based Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre opened its series B this month to $134m.
Juno’s major investors include Arch Venture Partners, a former spin-out of Chicago University (which remains a partner and an investor) and the Alaska Permanent Fund, a state-managed vehicle using 25% of the state’s oil money to future-proof its economy. Both firms invested the first $120m during Juno’s series A back in December 2013. Bezos Expeditions, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s investment company, and Venrock, a venture capital firm established by the Rockefeller family, then provided a further $56m in April 2014. The round was one of the largest in history.
The startup includes Marc Tessier-Lavigne, president of Rockefeller University, on its board of directors and is headed by chief executive Hans Bishop, who previously worked at major pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer Healthcare, Glaxo Wellcome, SmithKlineBeecham and Chiron.
Bishop commented that Juno is playing the long game and needs the right investors to do so. From his perspective, raising $300m has been primarily about relationship building and identifying investors who are not looking for a quick exit.
Juno’s research and development goal is to use the human body’s own immune system against cancerous cells, by reprogramming so-called T cells. These are a type of white blood cell – the others being B cells and NK cells – and fulfil several crucial functions of the immune system, from killing virally infected cells to preventing auto-immune reactions to remembering vaccines. It is the last of these qualities that Juno is tapping into: by reprogramming the subset called memory T cells, the immune system would kick in as soon as cancerous cells are detected and destroy them without further outside intervention.
While the idea may sound simple enough conceptually, the challenge lies in eliminating the risk of these reprogrammed T cells accidentally targeting healthy cells and giving the patient auto-immune disease.
What has everyone so excited about Juno’s approach and explains the deep pockets of its investors is the revolutionary potential of its therapy. With 14.5 million cancer patients currently in the US and an average of 910 new cancer patients diagnosed in the UK per day, cancer seems unstoppable. But if Juno’s technology makes it to market, we are looking at a future without radiation therapy, chemotherapy or surgical removals of infected tissues such as mastectomies.
Unfortunately for Juno, there is another battle to fight before it can fully dedicate its attention to cancer. The startup’s primary competitor is Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company with a revenue of $57.9bn – and incidentally the acquirer of Bishop’s old stomping ground Chiron. Novartis is working on a similar cancer treatment with Pennsylvania University, and is fighting Juno over certain parts of the underlying technology.
Meanwhile Celgene and Kite Pharma are also trying to enter the market. Kite Pharma could prove a major competitor to Juno, having exceeded expectations with a $128m initial public offering in July 2014.
Optimistically, Hans Bishop is not worried about the legal concerns getting in the way of its therapy reaching the market. He said: “I really do not think that will happen. That is a personal view, but I am not worried about that. The way we look at it is the unmet need for these patients is very, very real, the prognosis for patients battling acute lymphoblastic leukaemia after they have failed their second round of consolidation is very dire. If competition really accelerates the chances for a better standard of care for those patients, it is a good thing.”