NEW YORK – March Biosciences said Wednesday that it has raised $28.4 million in a Series A oversubscribed financing round, which it will put toward launching a Phase II clinical trial of its CAR T-cell therapy MB-105 in early 2025.
Mission BioCapital and 4BIO Capital led the financing round, which included participation from KdT Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Volnay Therapeutics, Modi Ventures, Mansueto Investments, TMC Venture Fund, Cancer Focus Fund, and Small Ventures. Houston-based March Bio has now raised a total of more than $51 million.
The company, which spun out of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Texas Children's Hospital, is developing MB-105 as a treatment for patients with CD5-positive T-cell lymphoma. March Bio believes that MB-105 can overcome some of the limitations of existing T-cell therapies, including T-cell fratricide. The firm has been evaluating the autologous therapy in a Phase I clinical trial, in which eligible patients need to have CD5-positive cancers, defined as greater than 50 percent CD5-positive blasts according to flow cytometry or immunohistochemistry testing.
According to March Bio, MB-105 has demonstrated favorable safety and promising early activity in this trial. In the upcoming Phase II study, the firm hopes to build on this data as well as optimize the treatment's manufacturing process. For the latter task, March Bio has partnered with the cell therapy venture studio Volnay Therapeutics, and Volnay Cofounder and CEO Stefan Wildt is joining March Bio's board of directors.
March Bio also plans to use the financing to expand its pipeline beyond MB-105 and for general corporate proceeds.