NEW YORK – Arsenal Biosciences on Tuesday said it has raised $220 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round that it will use to advance its pipeline of autologous, programmable CAR T-cell therapies for solid tumors.
Several new investors contributed funds including Softbank Vision Fund 2, Bristol Myers Squibb, Byers Capital, Emerson Collective Investments, Green Sands, Hitachi Ventures, and Sixth Street. Existing investors also participated, such as the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Westlake Village BioPartners, the University of California, San Francisco's Foundation Investment Company, Euclidean Capital, Waycross Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.
ArsenalBio will use the raised funds to conduct research into programmable cell therapies and grow its product pipeline in various solid tumor indications. The company will be able to immediately use the money to plan and execute clinical trials for AB-1015, its lead CAR T-cell therapy candidate for ovarian cancer. The South San Francisco, California-based firm is hoping the US Food and Drug Administration will clear its investigational new drug application for AB-1015 by year-end, allowing it to start human trials.
"ArsenalBio's programmable cell therapy technology has shown great promise in preclinical development, giving us confidence that our approach may help address the unmet medical needs of cancer patients, ultimately helping alleviate human suffering," ArsenalBio CEO and Founder Ken Drazan said in a statement. "We look forward to entering the clinic so we can more fully understand the promise of our technology in treating ovarian and ultimately other devastating cancers."
In line with the Series B funding, Valentin Barsan, an investor for SoftBank Investment Advisers and an attending pediatric oncologist at Stanford University School of Medicine, has joined ArsenalBio's board of directors.