NEW YORK – ImmPact Bio on Thursday closed a $111 million Series B funding round led by venBio Partners, Foresite Capital, and Decheng Capital.
Other investors in this funding round included Surveyor Capital and the company's existing investors OrbiMed, Novartis Venture Fund, RM Global Partners, and Bukwang Pharmaceutical. Concurrent with the funding, Yvonne Yamanaka of venBio Partners, Cindy Xiong of Foresite Capital, and Min Cui of Decheng Capital will join the company's board of directors.
The funding will be used to advance development of ImmPact's CAR T-cell platforms. The Camarillo, California-based company has three autologous CAR T-cell therapies in development targeting CD19/CD20, loss of heterozygosity, and TGF-beta. The company has designed its programs to address antigen escape, on-target off-tumor toxicity, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.
ImmPact's CD19/CD20-targeted CAR T-cell therapy is currently undergoing a Phase I trial in relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. With 12 months of median follow up in that study, seven of eight patients treated with the therapy have reached and remain in complete remission, the company said on Thursday. ImmPact's other two CAR T-cell therapy programs are in preclinical phase.
Also on Thursday, ImmPact appointed Sumant Ramachandra as president and CEO. Previous CEO Rick Kendall will become the company's CSO. Ramachandra was previously chief science, technology, and medical officer at Baxter International.