A company developing cell therapies in solid tumors has raised more than $100 million in a Series B round that it plans to use to take its product candidates into clinical trials.
Stevenage, U.K.-based Achilles Therapeutics said Tuesday that it had raised 100 million pounds – equal to about $120 million – in a Series B round, led by RA Capital Management. Founding investor Syncona participated, along with Forbion, Perceptive Advisors and Redmile Group.
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The company said proceeds for the round will be used to launch two clinical trials of its product candidates in non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma. Its pipeline page lists multicenter Phase I/IIa studies for both indications. Both trials are listed also on ClinicalTrials.gov, with the page for the NSCLC study stating it is currently open for recruitment.
Achilles’ approach involves personalized T-cell therapies that target clonal neoantigens, which are protein markers unique to each patient that are present on the surface of cancer cells. The starting material for the products, known as clonal neoantigen T cells – or cNeT – consists of T cells isolated from a tumor sample known as tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs.
“The Achilles approach integrates years of multi-disciplinary scientific and clinical knowledge from immuno-oncology, cell therapy and genomics with the goal of creating a TIL-based therapeutic enriched with T cells reacting against clonal neoantigens,” RA Capital Management Derek DiRocco said in a statement. “We believe this approach may represent the optimal way to expand the utility of polyclonal TIL therapy to multiple solid tumor types and has the potential to provide profound clinical benefit for patients living with cancer.”
TILs represent one of multiple kinds of cell therapies currently in development for cancers. Another company developing them is Iovance, which said in July that, per discussions with the Food and Drug Administration, it could use data from its Phase II study of a TIL in cervical cancer to seek the agency’s approval.
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Other types of cell therapies include T-cell receptors, or TCRs, and chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, or CAR-T. Novartis’ Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) and Gilead Sciences’ Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) are CAR-Ts with FDA approval for blood cells, both targeting the CD19 antigen.
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