Precision finds the mark with $25.6m

University investment consortium Osage University Partners is one of several backers investing in US-based biotech Precision Biosciences.

The $25.6m series A round was led by Venbio, and joined by Osage, Baxter Ventures, Fidelity Biosciences, Amgen Ventures, the Longevity Fund, and others. Robert Adelman of Venbio and Ben Auspitz of Fidelity will join the company’s board as part of the deal.

Precision is developing genome editing technology called Arcus, which is backed by a number of patents. Precision does not implicitly state that it is a spin-out. However, Osage will only invest in technology originating from one of its members’ institutions, and Precision’s chief technology officer Jeff Smith was formerly a research associate at Duke University before joining Precision, indicating that the company is born out of research conducted during his time with the institution.

Matthew Kane, CEO at Precision, said: “We are thrilled to welcome such a strong and diverse group of investors as our company enters into this exciting next phase of translational product development. This financing will allow us to expand beyond our successful efforts to develop the leading next-gen genome editing platform and significantly accelerate the development of our genome-edited product pipeline.”