University of Tokyo Edge Capital joined a second close that expanded the cell therapy developer's series B round by an extra $11m.
Nohla Therapeutics, a US-based cell therapy spinout from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has reached the $56m second close of a series B round featuring University of Tokyo Edge Capital.
University of Tokyo Edge Capital, an investment vehicle for the institution, participated in the second close alongside Schroder Adveq and Premier Partners.
Nohla raised an initial $45m tranche in May this year backed by pharmaceutical firm Celgene, life sciences real estate developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities and financial services group Fidelity Management and Research (FMR).
The round also included Arch Venture Partners, 5AM Ventures and AML Biotech Partners. Alexandria Real Estate Equities participated through its venture capital arm, Alexandria Venture Investments.
Nohla is developing off-the-shelf cell therapies for patients suffering from critical diseases such as hematologic malignancies, a form of cancer.
The company’s lead product candidate, dilanubicel, is a stem and progenitor cell therapy that will help generate red blood cells on a short-term basis, which is currently in phase 2 clinical trials.
Nohla previously raised a total of $64.5m, including $43.5m in a series A round led by Arch Venture Partners in 2016. The series A also featured 5AM Ventures and Jagen Group.
Katie Fanning, president and CEO of Nohla Therapeutics, said: “We have achieved a number of significant milestones in the first half of 2018 including further advancement of our lead product, dilanubicel.
“This additional funding will support our ongoing clinical development of dilanubicel in allogeneic transplant and acute myeloid leukaemia, as well as support the advancement of discovery programs from our platform.”
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
