Achilles Therapeutics has been started in the UK using research from UCL (University College London) and the Francis Crick Institute.
Syncona, an investment unit of medical charity Wellcome Trust, and UK-based impact investor Cancer Research Technology (CRT) through its CRT Pioneer Fund and the UCL Technology Fund led the £13.2m ($17.5m) funding.
Achilles Therapeutics will design therapies to target truncal tumour neo-antigens – unique flags to the immune system present on the surface of every cancer cell, which were first discovered by Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)’s Francis Crick Institute and UCL Cancer Institute.
The company founders are professors Charles Swanton, Karl Peggs and Mark Lowdell and Dr Sergio Quezada.
The company has exclusive rights to develop and commercialise neo-antigen technologies arising from Cancer Research UK’s £14m TRACERx study.
CRT will receive equity milestones and royalties from products developed and commercialised by Achilles Therapeutics. Any such financial reward from the company will be shared with UCLB and the Crick.
Chris Ashton, CEO of Achilles Therapeutics, said: “This company is underpinned by world-leading science, committed investors and leading health institutes. Bringing all of these major players together holds great promise for non-small cell lung cancer patients and I hope that working alongside one another we will see great successes in the future.”
