Jasper Therapeutics, based in part on Stanford research, has raised a $15m series A extension on the back of early clinical results from its blood transplant conditioning program.
Jasper Therapeutics, a US-based blood transplant conditioning agent spinout of Stanford University and drug producer Amgen, on Thursday increased its series A round past $50m with a $14.1m tranche led by drug firm Roche’s Venture Fund.
The extension involved unnamed additional investors and came after the initial $35m close last month co-led by venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners and bioscience-focused investment firm Abingworth.
Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic investment arm of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, also took part in the first tranche, as did Surveyor Capital, an equities unit of asset management group Citadel.
Jasper Therapeutics is developing antibody-based conditioning agents to protect the body during haematopoietic cell transplants – transfusions of healthy bone marrow stem cells used to combat certain cancers and autoimmune diseases.
Patients eligible for haematopoietic cell transplants are currently prepared using radiation or chemotherapy-based conditioning that risks severe side-effects including damage to their DNA and organs.
The funding will go toward developing Jasper’s lead candidate, JSP191, which aims to destroy diseased bone marrow stem cells by protecting the CD117 stem cell factor receptor, opening up space for donor or gene-corrected transplants.
JSP191 is currently undergoing a phase 1/2 clinical study in severe combined immunodeficiency, a rare genetic disorder that arrests immune function, with the series A funding going to its continued development.
The study is set to be expanded into two subtypes of blood cancer – acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndrome – having presented early findings to the American Society of Hematology last month.
