The pharmaceutical firm's Lilly Asia Ventures unit is co-investing in the T-cell technology developer with University of Pennsylvania.

Tmunity Therapeutics, a US-based developer of T cell-based treatments for a wide range of diseases, is raising $10m from investors including Lilly Asia Ventures, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

Penn Medicine, the academic medical centre of University of Pennsylvania, is also taking part in the equity financing, the first to be raised by Tmunity.

Tmunity was founded by faculty and researchers from Penn’s Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, and its prospective drugs are based on research conducted there. It is working on immunotherapies to treat oncology, infectious diseases and autoimmune disease.

Carl H. June, co-founder and chief scientific advisor for Tmunity Therapeutics, said: “Tmunity has pulled together all of the capabilities needed to quickly translate personalised next-generation T cell therapies from the bench to the bedside, including best-in-class research capabilities, a proprietary manufacturing platform, and a founding team with a leading track record and nearly two decades of experience in executing safe and effective cell and gene therapy clinical trials.”

– This article was first published by our sister site Global Corporate Venturing.