PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tmunity Therapeutics, in pursuit of its vision to save and improve lives by delivering the full potential of next-generation T-cell immunotherapy, closed a $75 million Series B financing. The financing was led by Andreessen Horowitz (also known as "a16z"), a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology and includes participation from a16z’s Cultural Leadership Fund. Joining the Series B financing are Westlake Village BioPartners, Gilead Sciences, The University of Pennsylvania, Be The Match BioTherapies and BrightEdge, the philanthropic impact fund of the American Cancer Society.
The proceeds from the Series B will continue to fund ongoing and planned research, clinical development of product candidates, the continued build-out of the Company’s proprietary, vertically-integrated viral vector and cell therapy product manufacturing, working capital and other general purposes. Since inception, Tmunity has raised $231 million.
“We are fortunate to be funded by impressive investors who share our commitment to patients and our vision to dramatically change the way cancer is treated,” said Usman “Oz” Azam, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tmunity. “We see ourselves leading the innovation of the future of oncology treatment by uniting our foundational competences in cell therapy with expertise in building new constructs, translating them and getting them into the clinic.”
As part of the Series B financing, Jorge Conde, General Partner at a16z, will join the Company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Conde leads a16z’s investments that are at the cross section of biology, computer science and engineering.
"To win the war on cancer, we need smarter weapons. Tmunity’s founders Carl June and Bruce Levine invented CAR-T, one of the most profound breakthroughs against cancer in recent history. Together with Oz Azam, who with his team, brought the first CAR-T therapy to market, the company has built a pioneering platform that has produced an unrivaled therapeutic pipeline with programs already in human clinical trials for both solid and liquid tumors. This is the dream team to deliver on the bold and promising mission to cure disease using engineered T-cells," said Conde.
About Tmunity Therapeutics
Tmunity is a private clinical-stage biotherapeutics company focused on saving and improving lives by delivering the full potential of next-generation T-cell immunotherapy to patients with devastating diseases. Integrating a foundational collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) with the groundbreaking scientific, clinical, and manufacturing expertise, and the demonstrated track record of its founders (Carl June, MD; Bruce Blazar, MD; Bruce Levine, PhD; Yangbing Zhao, MD, PhD; Jim Riley, PhD; and Anne Chew, PhD), Tmunity represents a new center of gravity in translational T-cell medicine. Through the University of Pennsylvania, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and collaborations with the University of California San Francisco and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the company is developing a diversified portfolio of novel treatments that exhibit best-in-class control over T-cell activation and direction in the body, with a focus in cancer and three programs currently in clinic development. With headquarters in Philadelphia, Tmunity utilizes laboratories and production facilities at Penn and its own dedicated cGMP manufacturing facility in East Norriton, PA, to pursue process improvement and production scale-up in support of clinical development of its T-cell therapies. For more information, visit www.tmunity.com and connect with us on social media at @TmunityTx and LinkedIn.
