Juno’s approach eradicated cancer cells in 10 of 12 leukemia patients, indicating potential to transform the standard of care in oncology
Immunotherapy startup lands $120M Series A for cancer-killing drugs
December 4, 2013 | By Damian Garde
Their startup, Juno Therapeutics, unites some of the brightest minds in immunotherapy development around the idea of using chimeric antigen receptors to reprogram a patient’s T cells and transform them into cancer-fighting agents. Juno’s leadership believes the platform will lead to promising drug candidates for hematologic and solid tumor cancers, and they’ve recruited the Seattle Children’s Research Institute to pitch in on pediatric development.
The $120 million raise, provided by investors like ARCH Venture Partners and the Alaska Permanent Fund, will help get some of Juno’s candidates through Phase I, and the company is already trumpeting its early results as “unprecedented.” Juno’s drug completely eradicated cancer cells in 10 of 12 leukemia patients after a single infusion, the company said–results cofounder and former National Cancer Institute Director Richard Klausner called the most exciting data he’s seen in 30 years of immunotherapy research.
The new company has yet to disclose side effects, survival rates or full-scale data from those studies, but the early promise was enough to lure some high-dollar backing, and Juno has recruited a CEO with experience bringing a T cell-altering immunotherapy to market, installing former Dendreon chief Hans Bishop to lead the way. And the company is hardly short on ambition, setting course on a broad clinical program with plans to run concurrent trials on numerous cancers, Bishop said.
“Juno brings together renowned scientists and exceptional investment partners to launch and quickly scale an enterprise that will deliver cutting-edge cancer immunotherapy,” Bishop said in a statement. “It is a completely unique opportunity that holds the potential to truly save lives while transforming how we treat cancer.”
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Read more: Immunotherapy startup lands $120M Series A for cancer-killing drugs – FierceBiotech http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/immunotherapy-startup-lands-120m-series-cancer-killing-drugs/2013-12-04#ixzz2qPjUNOxe
Amazon ($AMZN) founder and new media mogul Jeff Bezos is investing a bit of his personal fortune in Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics, a biotech startup that’s been making some big waves in the immunotherapy world.
Just weeks after Juno launched with great fanfare, the biotech announced that Bezos’ personal investment group, Bezos Expeditions, helped add $25 million to Juno’s already bountiful $120 million A round with the assistance of Venrock. Juno also added some marquee players to its board today, including Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the former CSO at Genentech and current president of The Rockefeller University in New York City.
Juno is the brainchild of some of the world’s top scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute. The company in-licensed technology from St. Jude’s regarding chimeric antigen receptors, which its founders believe can be used to reprogram immune T cells that can then be directed against cancer cells. That CAR-T tech is similar to the approach being used by Novartis ($NVS) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Carl June, and the principals are already deep into litigation over the intellectual property that’s being employed.
In early research, the founders say that Juno’s approach eradicated cancer cells in 10 of 12 leukemia patients, indicating potential to transform the standard of care in oncology.
Bezos has been investing some of his Amazon fortune in a variety of ventures, including Business Insider, the Washington Post and Sapphire Energy. But this is the first straight biotech investment that Fierce has come across so far.
“This is an exciting time for Juno,” said Hans Bishop, CEO, in a statement. “The investments from Bezos Expeditions and Venrock will help accelerate our growth as we work to transform how we treat cancer.”
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 18:24:32 +0000 (GMT)
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