Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will invest up to $40m in the biological drug developer, which raised $320m in an Eli Lilly-backed round two years ago.

Charitable foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation agreed yesterday to invest up to $40m in Immunocore, the UK-based biological drug developer spun out of biotech company MediGene in 2008.

Immunocore is working on T-cell receptor-based drugs that will treat cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases. The foundation’s investment will support the development of therapies for tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

The company’s origins can be traced back to University of Oxford, which spun out Avidex in 1999 before…