ImmPACT Bio Raises $111M For Its Next-Generation Cancer Cell Therapy

US-Israeli clinical-stage company ImmPACT Bio, which is developing the next generation of cancer cell therapies, announced last week that it has raised $111 million in a Series B funding round.

ImmPACT Bio was formed from a merger with Israeli company Immpact, which was raised in the FutuRX biotech incubator, and US company Kalthera, which was founded in California.

The round was led by venBio Partners along with co-leads Foresite Capital and Decheng Capital. Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company) also joined this financing round. Additional investors include the company’s existing investors OrbiMed, Novartis Venture Fund, RM Global Partners (RMGP), and Bukwang Pharmaceutical.

FutuRX is a biotech incubator that is part of the Israel Innovation Authority’s (IIA) network of technological incubators. It focuses on drug development. The incubator is a partnership between Johnson & Johnson, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, and OrbiMed, in cooperation with the IIA.

The company’s logic-gate based CAR T platforms address key biological challenges in treating cancer. ImmPACT Bio’s technologies are specifically designed to address antigen escape, ‘on-target – off-tumor’ toxicities, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The company’s technologies are based on the work of pioneering scientists Yvonne Chen, Ph.D., and Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D., both from UCLA, and Gideon Gross, Ph.D., from the MIGAL-Galilee Research Institute.

The investment will be used to further the company’s development of logic-gate-based CAR T-cell platforms. 

ImmPACT Bio has appointed Sumant Ramachandra as president and CEO.

“ImmPACT Bio is thrilled to receive such strong support from this outstanding group of investors,” said newly appointed ImmPACT Bio CEO Dr. Ramachandra. “We are encouraged by these initial results of our Phase 1 clinical study and look forward to advancing our pipeline of transformative next-generation CAR T-cell therapies that harness the immune system and address key challenges for current cell therapies in cancer.”