CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rubius Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering the creation of a new class of extraordinarily active, ready-to-use and life-changing cellular therapies, today announced the successful completion of an oversubscribed $100 million crossover financing. In just under nine months, the Company has now raised over $220 million.
Rubius has developed the technology to grow, genetically engineer and mature long-circulating Red-Cell Therapeutics™ (RCT™) products, which have the potential to provide transformational clinical benefits to a wide range of patients across multiple therapeutic areas. These allogeneic, off-the-shelf products offer the additional advantage of extended stability and storage to allow for rapid, universal access by the medical community. Proceeds from the financing will be used to accelerate the development of the Company’s portfolio of RCTs™ towards clinical proof-of-concept, and to enhance its manufacturing capacity and capabilities.
“The addition of this funding further strengthens our foundation and enables us to accelerate the development of our first wave of RCT products that are targeting treatment of enzyme deficiencies, cancer and autoimmune disease,” said Torben Straight Nissen, Ph.D., President of Rubius Therapeutics. “We have assembled an extremely talented team of investors, leadership and advisors, which all share the long-term vision of bringing novel cellular therapies to patients.”
“We are pleased with the quality of the investor group participating in this financing, and would like to thank our new and existing investors,” said David Epstein, Executive Chairman of Rubius and Executive Partner of Flagship Pioneering. “Their strong support further validates the potential of RCT products and the opportunity that we have to make a meaningful impact in the lives of patients.”
“Rubius has become one of the most exciting members of the Flagship family of companies; applying scientifically disruptive insights against unsolved problems to create groundbreaking new therapies,” said Noubar Afeyan, CEO of Flagship Pioneering and Co-Founder of Rubius. “We are excited to further support Rubius in this crossover round as the company continues to advance the next generation of cellular therapies.”
About Rubius Therapeutics
Rubius Therapeutics, a 2017
“Fierce 15” award winner, is creating RCTs™ as a new class of medicines.
Leading applications include programs in cancer, enzyme deficiency
diseases and the induction of tolerance to treat autoimmune disease. The
company was conceived and launched by Flagship VentureLabs®, the
innovation foundry where a team of scientific entrepreneurs
systematically evolve enterprising ideas based upon previously
undiscovered areas of science into real-world inventions and ventures.
Rubius® was founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2014. For more
information, please visit www.rubiustx.com.
About RCT™ Products
RCT™ products are genetically
engineered, enucleated red cells that are being developed to provide
allogeneic, ready-to-use cellular therapies to patients across multiple
therapeutic areas. The advantages of RCT products over other therapies
include immuno-privileged presentation of proteins within or on the red
cell, high target avidity and affinity, and long circulation half-life.
Rubius RCTs exhibit fundamentally unique and potent biology; they have
been engineered to replace missing enzymes for patients living with a
variety of rare diseases, to kill tumors, and to upregulate or
downregulate the immune system to treat both cancer and autoimmune
disorders.
