AvenCell Therapeutics on Tuesday said it collected $112 million to continue clinical studies of two experimental acute myeloid leukemia CAR-T cell therapies.
The Series B raise comes despite cold investor sentiment toward cancer cell therapies as of late. “We see quite a lot of investors out there who have invested previously in cell therapy and haven’t been pleased with how that’s played out,” AvenCell CEO Andrew Schiermeier said.
“But it comes back to the basics, which is if you have very strong science and very strong clinical data, the investors are certainly happy to listen,” Schiermeier added.
The round was led by Novo Holdings, and included investors such as F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures Japan, Piper Heartland Healthcare Capital and NYBC Ventures, as well as AvenCell’s founding investor Blackstone Life Sciences.
AvenCell was born out of gene editing technology from Intellia Therapeutics, money from Blackstone, and an acquisition of the German biotech GEMoaB. The company is building switchable CAR-T therapies that can be turned on and off using a protein. The idea is that doing so can reduce the serious toxicities associated with the therapies.
AvenCell is testing its approach in acute myeloid leukemia, where no CAR-T therapies have been successfully developed yet. Part of that lack of success, Schiermeier said, is due to the toxicity associated with the target for AML called CD123. “The more aggressively you go after CD123, the more you wind up with unacceptable toxicity,” he said. “So it did serve as a perfect initial indication for us to go with what we call our switchable CAR concept.”
Novo Holdings partner Michael Bauer said the bar for investing in an AML cell therapy is lower than one for other blood cancers such as multiple myeloma or B cell lymphomas, where CAR-T therapies have already been approved. “AML is the last frontier in heme,” said Bauer, who is joining AvenCell’s board.
Michael BauerBauer said that Novo Holdings had looked at GEMoaB, but hadn’t invested at the time because it also had a stake in Arcellx, which was developing a similar approach. Novo Holdings has since exited Arcellx (which is now a public company), AvenCell has produced clinical data, and “the valuation is as adjusted to what we believe is more reasonable,” Bauer said.
Last year, AvenCell shared data showing that in its first 19 patients in an early-stage study, the overall response rate was 53%. Schiermeier said the company now has data with 26 patients in the dose escalation phase of its study and “the first handful” of patients in the dose expansion phase. He also said there are “a couple of patients who have quite long-term complete responses — beyond six months.”
AvenCell is also developing a second AML therapy that uses gene editing technology. That cell therapy also targets CD123, but is allogeneic, meaning that it doesn’t require a patient’s own cells. The company announced in February that it dosed its first patient with the allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy.
The biotech is also interested in the autoimmune space, where many cell therapy companies have now migrated. As for when it will start work in that space, Schiermeier said, “I don’t think it is too far away.”