Columbia University’s Vor Biopharma has collected more capital from shareholders including Osage University Partners, Johnson & Johnson and PureTech Health.
Vor Biopharma, a US-based cancer treatment developer spun out of Columbia University, yesterday raised $110m in a series B round featuring spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners (OUP).
RA Capital Management led the round, which also included healthcare group Johnson & Johnson, pharmaceutical companies PureTech Health, life science real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities and financial services group Fidelity.
Pagliuca Family Office and 5AM Ventures filled out the round together with undisclosed backers. Johnson & Johnson and Alexandria Real Estate Equities took part through respective subsidiaries Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Alexandria Venture Investments.
Vor Biopharma is working on engineered haematopoietic stem cell (eHSC) therapies that have biologically redundant proteins removed – essentially making the stem cells invisible to complementary treatments that target those proteins.
The company’s lead asset, Vor33, is aimed at acute myeloid leukaemia and is expected to avoid toxicity to blood and bone marrow associated with current treatments.
Vor exploits foundational work by Siddhartha Mukherjee at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center. The company was co-founded by PureTech Health.
The series B capital will enable the company to advance Vor33 into clinical trials, expand its portfolio and accelerate the validation of additional targets.
Robert Ang, president and chief executive of Vor, said: “The high calibre of investors participating in this financing underscores the tremendous potential of our eHSC platform.
“We have ambitious goals for the coming year, and this financing is an important step as we prepare to treat cancer patients in our first clinical trials.”
OUP previously contributed to a $42m series A round in February 2019 that was co-led by 5AM Ventures and RA Capital Management. The round also included PureTech Health and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC.
Pharmaceutical firm Novartis, through its Institutes of Biomedical Research, also backed the series A round.
