Novartis Venture Fund has helped seed a T-cell drug developer founded from Seattle Children's Hospital, Benaroya Research Institute and MIGAL Galilee.
GentiBio, a US-based T-cell therapy developer based on insights from multiple research centres, closed a $20m seed round yesterday co-led by Novartis Venture Fund, the corporate venturing unit for pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
The round was co-led by healthcare-focused investment firm OrbiMed and RA Capital Management.
GentiBio plans to develop drugs that restore immune system function using regulatory T-cells engineered using the CD4 subpopulation, which is thought to be in greater supply than alternative production sources.
A scarcity of regulatory T-cells endogenous to the patient can make it harder to leverage existing immunotherapies, and GentiBio also claims its approach could hone into specific antigens more effectively.
The funding will help GentiBio progress its concept with a view to tackling indications such as autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
GentiBio’s scientific co-founders include David Rawlings, director of the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at Seattle Children’s Hospital’s research institute and a faculty member at University of Washington School of Medicine.
Rawlings was assisted by Gidi Gross, professor and head of the immunology lab at Israel-based MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, and Jane Buckner, president of nonprofit research centre Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason.
GentiBio has entered exclusive licensing agreements with all three founding institutes in conjunction with the seed round.
